METHOD FOR ESTIMATING TIMING ADVANCE IN LARGE CELL AREA

The present invention relates to a method for a user equipment operating in a cellular network comprising a plurality of base stations, where the user equipment is operating with at least one base station supplying a cell, hereinafter the addressed base station, the method comprising the steps for the user equipment of:- receiving an indication from the base station relating to a submission time of a preamble message,- estimating a timing advance value relating to a signal transmission from the user equipment to the addressed base station by means of calculating a distance between the user equipment and the addressed base station and translating the distance value into timing advance value,- calculating a signal offset value from said estimated timing advance,- sending the preamble message to the base station comprising a value relating to the estimated timing advance value at a specific point in time,wherein the point in time for sending said preamble message is based on said calculated signal offset and said indicated submission time.