Patent ID: 8737353

Claim:
A method for RF channel handoff from a current RF channel in a current local operating infrastructure (LOI) to the same or another RF channel in a neighboring LOI in a multi-frequency network, the method comprising: generating wide and local seamless handoff tables and wide and local partially seamless handoff tables for the current RF channel carried in a current LOI, wherein the wide seamless handoff table comprise RF channels carrying the same wide multiplex as the current RF channel and belonging to neighboring LOIs that carry a superset of the wide content multiplexes carried in the current LOI, the local seamless handoff table comprises RF channels carrying the same local multiplex as the current RF and belonging to neighboring LOIs that carry a superset of the local content multiplexes carried in the current LOI, and the local partially seamless handoff table comprises RF channels carrying the same local multiplex as the current RF and belonging to neighboring LOIs that carry a subset of the local content multiplexes carried in the current LOI; detecting a handoff event initiated by acquisition failures on the current RF; determining a candidate handoff RF channel list from the wide and local seamless and partially seamless handoff tables such that the highest priority flows are preserved whereby the highest priority flows are either the real time flows if any are present, or if no real time flows are present, the highest priority registered flows; choosing a scanning order of the RF channels that depends on the mix of active flows; scanning the candidate RF channels and the present RF channel for the highest priority flows; selecting an RF channel based on satisfactory decoding of the highest priority flows; and performing a handoff to the selected RF channel.