Patent ID: 8842631

Claim:
A method for handoff at a target base station, comprising: receiving, at the target base station, first data for an access terminal, from a source base station, the first data including at least one data packet that has been assigned a sequence number; receiving, at the target base station, an indicator directly from the source base station, the indicator identifying a next sequence number that should be assigned to a next packet for the access terminal that has not been assigned a sequence number; receiving second data from a network module for the access terminal, at the target base station, the second data including at least one data packet having no assigned sequence number; assigning, by the target base station, at least one sequence number to the second data, starting at the next sequence number, wherein each data packet from the second data is assigned a different sequence number, the at least one sequence number facilitating determination of a data order of the first data received from the source base station and the second data received from the network module; and transmitting the first and second data from the target base station to the access terminal.