The invention provides a method of generating a downlink signal and searching a cell on the basis of the downlink signal in an OFDM-based cellular system. The downlink signal includes a plurality of synchronization blocks each having a plurality of sub-frames, and a synchronization pattern composed of a combination of a cell group identification code for identifying a cell group and a frame synchronization identification code for indicating a frame start point is generated in each of the synchronization blocks. Different frame synchronization identification codes are allocated to the synchronization blocks.