METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING A HANDOFF IN A FREQUENCY-DIVISION MULTIPLEX NETWORK

摘要

In a frequency division multiplex network, a method involves employing spread- spectrum communication in addition to frequency-division multiplexing for facilitating handoffs. A portion of the total transmission resources is designated for spread-spectrum frequency division multiplexed signals. A communication between a base station and a mobile station takes place over a transmission resource block in the reserved designated portion at the moment of handoff and uses spread-spectrum frequency-division signals. A base station receiving the handoff can communicate over the transmission resource block even if it is already communicating over the transmission resource block since the communication is spread-spectrum encoded.