Patent ID: 7623864

Claim:
A method for performing a handover by a Mobile Subscriber Station (MSS) in a Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) communication system including a serving Base Station (BS) for providing a service to the MSS and a target BS adjacent to the serving BS, the method comprising the steps of; receiving a handover request message from the serving BS, the handover request message including a resource remain type field representing whether connection information having been set between the serving BS and the MSS is retained and a resource retain time field representing a time duration value during which the serving BS will retain the connection information when the resource remain type field represents retaining of the connection information; recognizing whether the serving BS retains the connection information according to a value of the resource remain type field; transmitting a handover indication message to the serving BS, the handover indication message including information reporting performance of the handover and representing that retaining of the connection information starts from a point in time at which the handover indication message is received by the serving BS; releasing connection with the serving BS upon transmitting the handover indication message; determining a reentry to the serving BS during a handover to the target BS; and reopening communication with the serving BS using the connection information, when the serving BS retains the connection information.