A
cellular radio system in which a
base station receiver can receive, on the reverse link, data from a mobile terminal in one of four control
modes. In the first mode, the mobile terminal sends an independent user
pilot, not synchronized with the
base station, on the reverse link and the user
data channel is synchronized to this independent user
pilot. In the second mode, the mobile terminal slaves its user
pilot to the pilot it receives from the
base station and the user
data channel is synchronized with this slaved user pilot. This second mode allows the user terminal to receive round trip
delay information for purposes of
geolocation and rapid reacquisition. In the third mode, the mobile terminal slaves its user pilot to the incoming base
station pilot, as in the case of mode two, but the user
data channel operates in the orthogonal mode using the
ranging information received from the base
station. The
phase relationship between the user
pilot channel and the user data channel is calibrated. The user pilot carrier is also the carrier for the user data channel and can be used as the carrier reference for detecting the user data channel. In the fourth mode, the slaved pilot implementation of mode three is used for acquisition but, after acquisition, the user pilot code is
phase shifted to be synchronous with the user data channel, thus also making it an orthogonal channel. In this mode, the pilots no longer contribute interference to the user data channels, within the
cell, and can be transmitted at
higher power levels.