Patent ID: 7436803

Claim:
A method for determining by a mobile station whether to perform a soft handover based on measured strengths of a signal received from a source BTS (Base Transceiver Station) to which a traffic channel is currently set up, and a signal received from at least one target BTS in a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) mobile communication system, the method comprising the steps of: determining whether a difference (P source t 1 −P target t 1 ) between the strength of the signal received from the source BTS and the strength of the signal received from the target BTS at a prescribed time satisfies a handover request error which is a criterion to request a soft handover; if the soft handover is requested, calculating a difference (P source −H refer) between the strength of the signal received from the source BTS and a prescribed reference value; if the difference (P source −H refer) is larger than or equal to the handover request error (a prescribed handover condition P), calculating a new offset error; and performing the soft handover if the difference between the strength of the signal received from the source BTS and the strength of the signal received from the target BTS is smaller than or equal to the calculated new offset error.