A wireless communication system infrastructure services wireless
communications within a service coverage area. A digital enclosure
includes a plurality of wireless communication processing components that
perform digital processing functions. A plurality of radio enclosures
couple to the digital enclosure via communication links and each service
wireless communications within a corresponding geographic area of the
service coverage area. During operation of the wireless communication
system infrastructure, two radio enclosures of the plurality of radio
enclosures share a communication processing component of the digital
enclosure while jointly servicing a single wireless communication. The two
radio enclosures reside at respective geographic locations that are
separated by a geographic distance such that each of the radio enclosures
services a respective cell. Each of the radio enclosures may service a
plurality of sectors that form the cell. The digital enclosure couples to
a base station controller, which in turn couples to a mobile switching
center and, in some embodiments, to the Internet. Further, the mobile
switching center couples to the public switched telephone network. During
handoff of the wireless communication in a CDMA system from a first cell
to a second cell, a core of the digital enclosure couples a channel
element to a plurality of radio enclosures, each of which services a
cell/sector(s) participating in the handoff. In one handoff operation in
which six-way handoff is performed, the core couples a channel element of
the digital enclosure to three radio modules, each of which services two
sectors participating in the handoff.
