Patent ID: 7231212

Claim:
In a wireless communication system comprising at least two base stations and at least one switch in communication with the base stations, a method of performing handoff of a session from a base station connected with a mobile unit to a neighboring base station, wherein an instance of a low-level communications protocol is running at the base station connected with the mobile unit, comprising: at the switch, determining when to perform handoff to a selected one of the neighboring base stations; at the selected one of the neighboring base stations, creating a copy of the low-level communications protocol, including at least a synchronized time of day (TOD) parameter; from the switch, sending a command to stop communication with the mobile unit at a specified TOD to the base station connected with the mobile unit and sending a command to start communication with the mobile unit at the specified TOD to the selected one of the neighboring base stations; and updating session status tables in the switch and in the base stations.