Patent ID: 8811339

Claim:
A method of a user equipment (UE) in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system comprising: performing network entry via a first base station; receiving system information via a unicast message from the first base station for at least one other base station, wherein the system information includes a preamble index for each of the at least one other base station, and each of the at least one other base station belongs to an active set of the UE; measuring, at the UE, a signal strength of a signal of each of the at least one other base station, the measurement based on the received system information, wherein the signal strength is measured using a plurality of OFDM pilot tones, wherein the plurality of OFDM pilot tones are arranged in a scattered pattern in time and frequency; determining, at the UE, whether the signal strength for each of the at least one other base stations exceeds a pre-defined pilot tone signal strength threshold; and reporting, from the UE to the first base station, the signal strength corresponding to the base stations determined to exceed the pre-defined pilot tone signal strength threshold.