Patent ID: 7783312

Claim:
A method for communications of high speed data in a communication system, comprising: determining an active set of base stations by monitoring signal strength of signals received from a number of base stations for communications of essentially voice data over a fundamental channel; ranking the base stations of the active set by signal strength; determining at a mobile station a reduced active set of base stations based on the rank of members of said active set of base stations for communications of high speed data over a supplemental channel; detecting a predetermined set of conditions based on the monitored signal strength, wherein the predetermined set of conditions comprises a condition indicating that a base station currently selected for transmission of said supplemental channel has a rank other than first, in order of greatest signal strength; changing ranking of members of said reduced active set of base stations in response to detecting the predetermined set of conditions; and wherein determining the reduced active set further comprises: selecting base stations from the active set configured to carrying the communications of the high speed data over the supplemental channel; defining the selected base stations as the reduced active set of base stations; and transmitting a notification only to the reduced active set of base stations based on detecting the predetermined set of conditions, wherein the notification indicates to switch the communications of the high speed data from one base station to another base station.