Patent ID: 8804670

Claim:
A method comprising: while a radio access network (RAN) is serving one or more mobile stations on a first frequency channel, the RAN collecting from the one or more mobile stations measurements of air interface quality of a plurality of second frequency channels; the RAN using the collected measurements as a basis to select a preferred second frequency channel to use as a handoff target; the RAN detecting that a particular mobile station is fading from coverage on the first frequency channel; and responsive to the detecting, (i) the RAN requesting the particular mobile station to determine and report to the RAN measurements of sector quality on the selected second frequency channel, (ii) the RAN receiving in response from the particular mobile station the requested measurements of sector quality on the selected second frequency channel, (iii) the RAN selecting a target sector based on the received measurements of sector quality, and (iv) the RAN directing the particular mobile station to hand off to the selected target sector on the selected second frequency channel.