Patent ID: 6993338

Claim:
A code combining soft handoff (CCSH) method, comprising: measuring a strength of respective pilot signals of a plurality of base stations; if the strength of the respective received pilot signal is higher than a first prescribed value, using a first code pattern of a corresponding base station to decode a coded signal from the corresponding base station, and if the strength of the received pilot signal is lower than a second prescribed value, dropping a signal of the corresponding base station; receiving the coded signals from remaining base stations; and changing a first code pattern for a signal used by one of the remaining base stations to a second code pattern different from the first code pattern if the code patterns for signals used by the remaining base stations are the same, wherein the change of the code pattern from the first to the second code pattern is performed at a prescribed time to match a code pattern changing time between at least one of the remaining base stations and a mobile terminal, the code pattern changing time is defined in a time field of a universal handoff direction message (UHDM) sent from at least one of the remaining base stations to the mobile terminal.