The present invention provides a method of operating a base station transmitter. In one embodiment, the method includes providing a cellular downlink synchronization signal having primary and secondary portions, wherein the primary portion is common for all cells and the secondary portion is cell-specific and transmitting the cellular downlink synchronization signal. In another embodiment, the method includes providing a cellular downlink synchronization signal having primary and secondary portions wherein the primary portion employs a corresponding one of a plurality of different primary signals allocated to adjoining transmission cells. The method also includes further providing cell-specific information in the secondary portion and transmitting the cellular downlink synchronization signal. The present invention also provides a method of operating user equipment. The method includes receiving a cellular downlink synchronization signal having primary and secondary portions wherein the secondary portion provides cell-specific parameters and identifying and extracting the secondary portion.