Abstract: In a mobile communications network, drifts in timing of user equipment in soft handover may be accounted for by measuring the offset between the current timing of the user equipment and the first significant path of downlink frames from cells of the active set at first and second instances. Differences in the respective offsets from the first and second instances may be calculated to determine if the drift is unidirectional in time for all cells of the active set. A unidirectional drift in the offsets is indicative of a drift in timing of the user equipment, allowing the current timing to be momentarily unfrozen and updated.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for controlling a radio receiver circuit are disclosed. The radio receiver circuit is adapted to receive data over a communication channel, over which data is transmitted in transmission time intervals, each comprising at least one time slot. Data transmitted in one or more such time slots comprises a control sequence selected from a finite predefined set of control sequences. The method comprises determining correlation values between a received control sequence of said one or more time slots of a transmission time interval and each of the defined control sequences. Furthermore, the method comprises determining, based on said correlation values, whether any data is transmitted in the transmission time interval, and, in response to determining that no data is transmitted in the transmission time interval, disabling at least part of the radio receiver circuit during at least part of the remainder of the interval, for saving power.

Abstract: In a mobile communications network, drifts in timing of user equipment in soft handover may be accounted for by measuring the offset between the current timing of the user equipment and the first significant path of downlink frames from cells of the active set at first and second instances. Differences in the respective offsets from the first and second instances may be calculated to determine if the drift is unidirectional in time for all cells of the active set. A unidirectional drift in the offsets is indicative of a drift in timing of the user equipment, allowing the current timing to be momentarily unfrozen and updated.