Allocation of cell IDs in a cellular communication system includes determining a candidate allocation pattern of primary and secondary synchronization signal sequences for a candidate set of two or more cells. A performance metric is applied to the candidate allocation pattern to ascertain a performance indicator for the candidate allocation pattern, wherein the performance indicator indicates a quality of positioning performance for the candidate set of two or more cells. Cell-specific positioning performance for each cell in the candidate set of cells can be considered to derive the performance indicator of the candidate allocation pattern. If the performance indicator indicates acceptable positioning performance, primary and secondary synchronization signal sequences are allocated to respective ones of base stations corresponding to the two or more cells in accordance with the candidate allocation pattern. Otherwise, the process is repeated for a different candidate allocation pattern.