Patent ID: 8411638

Claim:
A method for background scanning in a wireless communication device receiving signals from multiple base stations, comprising: buffering raw signal data from multiple base stations in a first sample buffer; forwarding the raw signal data to a receive baseband processor for decoding data from a first one of the base stations that is currently designated as a serving base station with an active connection to the wireless communications device; forwarding the raw signal data to a background scanning processor, separate from the receive baseband processor; employing a second sample buffer to store additional raw signal data received from the multiple base stations in one or more additional frames; selecting, using source selection logic at the background scanning processor, a subset of the raw signal data from the first sample buffer or a subset of the additional raw signal data from the second sample buffer; generating channel characteristics corresponding to the multiple base stations with the background scanning processor based on the subset of the raw signal data or the subset of the additional raw signal data without interrupting the exchange of data with the first base station designated as the serving base station; and wherein the employing the second sample buffer is based in part on determining that a rate of processing the raw data signal at the background scanning processor is below a threshold.