Patent ID: 7006828

Claim:
A method of performing cell selection handoffs in a wireless communication system, wherein the wireless communication system includes a plurality of base stations in communication with a mobile station (MS), wherein the base stations transmit information to the mobile station via a forward link, and wherein the base stations receive information from the mobile station via a reverse link, and wherein each base station is capable of gating off transmissions for selected time intervals, and wherein the mobile station is capable of determining a strongest base station, and wherein the MS has an associated and corresponding active set of base stations comprising base stations with which the MS currently communicates, and wherein the communication system is capable of performing soft handoffs, comprising the steps of: a) determining a desired set of base stations, wherein the determining step comprises: (i) obtaining a threshold parameter based upon receiver needs for proper reception, wherein the threshold is dependent upon a minimum of MS received power that is necessary to achieve a desired Quality of Service (QoS) for the MS, (ii) determining relative base station signal strength for each base station in the active set, and (iii) selecting a minimum number of relatively strong base stations from the active set required to provide the minimum of MS received power to the MS, wherein a combined signal strength of the selected strong base stations are compared with the threshold, and wherein additional strong base stations are selected from the active set until the combined signal strength exceeds the threshold; b) temporarily gating off all base stations except for the desired set of base stations determined during step (a) for a selected time interval; and c) performing a soft handoff.