Patent ID: 8565773

Claim:
A method of managing data transmission during a soft handoff in a communication system, the method comprising the steps of: generating, from a mobile station, a pilot signal strength report for each sector of a base station in communication with the mobile station, wherein the communication system is an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based system; receiving, at the mobile station, a plurality of soft handoff groups from the base station in accordance with the pilot signal strength report generated by the mobile station, wherein at least one of the soft handoff groups contains more than one sector; measuring, by the mobile station, a combined pilot signal strength of each combined pilot signal; selecting, by the mobile station, a desired soft handoff group in accordance with the measured combined pilot signal strengths; updating member sectors in the mobile station's current soft handoff group responsive to the desired soft handoff group; wherein the mobile station communicates the desired soft handoff group to the base station using a reverse channel quality indicator (CQI) channel; assigning a covering sequence for the reverse CQI channel for each soft handoff group that the base station forms for the mobile station; communicating to the mobile station the covering sequence for each soft handoff group; covering the reverse CQI channel by the mobile station with the covering sequence associated with the desired soft handoff group; and transmitting the reverse CQI channel by the mobile station setting a transmit power for the desired soft handoff group.