A METHOD OF HANDLING A DEGRADATION OF TIME SYNCHRONICITY BETWEEN BASE STATIONS OF A MOBILE CELLULAR NETWORK AND A MOBILE CELLULAR NETWORK FOR CARRYING OUT SUCH METHOD

摘要

The present invention is directed to a method of handling a degradation of time synchronicity between base stations of a mobile cellular network, in particular supporting the 4G, 5G or any higher mobile communication standard, wherein the base stations perform Time Division Duplex (TDD) mode on a communication link with at least one User Equipment (UE), and wherein an internal time reference is required for control of the transmission time interval of the TDD mode, said internal time reference of the base stations is synchronized with an external synchronisation clock via a synchronisation link, characterised in that in case a link failure of the synchronisation link of a considered base station and/or a degradation of synchronicity of the internal time reference of the considered base station to any other base station, in particular to at least one adjacent base station, is detected, a TDD mode operation of the considered base station is maintained and at least one out-of-synchronisation measure is performed at the considered base station in order to mitigate a possible interference on surrounding cells caused by the degradation of synchronicity or the link failure of the considered base station.