Patent ID: 8687598

Claim:
A method of managing handoff in a wireless communication system in which a radio access network (RAN) serves a wireless communication device (WCD) and receives wirelessly from the WCD a sequence of power control commands requesting the RAN to adjust forward link transmission power used by the RAN for transmission to the WCD, wherein each power control command received from the WCD is selected from the group consisting of (i) a power-up command sent by the WCD in response to the WCD detecting forward link signal strength lower than a set point and (ii) a power-down command sent by the WCD in response to the WCD detecting forward link strength higher than the set point, the method comprising: receiving into the RAN, wirelessly from the WCD, a request for the RAN to grant a handoff of the WCD from first coverage of the RAN to second coverage of the RAN; responsive to the request, the RAN determining a cooperative characteristic of a plurality of power control commands from the WCD in a time period subsequent to the request, wherein the cooperative characteristic of the plurality of power control commands from the WCD for the time period subsequent to the request comprises the power control commands in the time period being a continuous series of power-up commands; and the RAN using the characteristic as a basis to condition grant of the request, wherein if the power control commands in the time period are all power-up commands, then the RAN grants the request, and if any of the power control commands in the time period is a power-down command, then the RAN does not grant the request.