Patent ID: 8135026

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a processor configured to: generate information indicative of whether a sector supports disjoint links for communication; send a message to a terminal indicating whether disjoint links are supported by the sector; receive from the terminal a selection of at least one of a forward link or a reverse link based on the message indicating whether disjoint links are supported by the sector; instruct serving the terminal for only the forward link or only the reverse link if disjoint links are supported by the sector; and instruct serving the terminal for both the forward and reverse links if disjoint links are not supported by the sector; and a memory coupled to the processor; wherein the processor is configured to instruct performing handoff of the terminal independently for the forward and reverse links if disjoint links are supported; and wherein the processor is configured to instruct performing handoff of the terminal jointly for the forward and reverse links if disjoint links are not supported.