Patent ID: 8792646

Claim:
An access terminal comprising: a communication interface for communicating with at least one access node; a processing circuit coupled to the communication interface, the processing circuit configured to maintain an active set list of access nodes that are in an active set for the access terminal, where the access terminal unilaterally selects which access node from the active set list of access nodes to use as a serving access node for facilitating wireless communication to and from the access terminal; obtain a temporary unicast key for each access node in the active set; generate a first group key for communication between the access terminal and the access nodes in the active set; encrypt the first group key with a first temporary unicast key for a first access node in the active set; send the encrypted first group key to the first access node; encrypt the first group key with other temporary unicast keys for other access nodes in the active set; and send each of the encrypted first group key to a corresponding access node with which temporary unicast key it was encrypted.