Patent ID: 8326305

Claim:
A method for pre-registering at least one data path for a mobile station, the method comprising: a serving base station receiving a mobile-originated handoff-request message from a mobile station, wherein the mobile-originated handoff-request message identifies a plurality of target base stations; the serving base station responsively determining whether to instruct each respective target base station to pre-register a data path for the mobile station; and in response to the determining whether to instruct, the serving base station (i) sending to at least one of the identified target base stations a serving-to-target handoff-request message that indicates that the serving base station is instructing that target base station to pre-register a data path for the mobile station, and (ii) sending to at least one of the identified target base stations a serving-to-target handoff-request message that indicates that the serving base station is instructing that target base station not to pre-register a data path for the mobile station.