Patent ID: 7164915

Claim:
A method for determining handoff by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) from a current basic service set (BSS) in a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising: determining a highest class of traffic service and quality of service (QoS) for the highest class from a basic service set (BSS) beacon; obtaining channel utilization and frame loss rate from a QBSS load element provided in the beacon; obtaining the QoS parameter set and average delay in a current cell contained in the beacon; calculating a QoS index employing data including one or more of: channel utilization, frame loss and delay of the current BSS, and wherein the calculating a QoS index further comprises a) setting a QoS index to zero (0); b) creating a list of QoS parameters; c) selecting one of the QoS parameters; d) comparing the selected QoS parameter with a high threshold for that QoS parameter; and e) performing one of incrementing the QoS index when the selected QoS parameter is greater than the high threshold for that QoS parameter; retaining a current QoS index when the selected QoS parameter is equal to the threshold for that QoS parameter; and reducing the current QoS index; and terminating a handoff and retaining communication with the current BSS when the calculated QoS index is at least equal to a QoS index threshold.