Method and system for intelligent determination of pseudonoise (PN) offsets

A method for a spread spectrum communication system, wherein said spread spectrum communication system comprises a plurality of sectors in which each sector is associated with a respective nominal pseudonoise (PN) offset, said method comprising:

• said spread spectrum communication system receiving a measurement message from a mobile station, wherein said measurement message includes a measured PN offset that said mobile station measured for a given sector in said plurality of sectors and further includes a signal strength that said mobile station measured for said given sector, wherein said measured PN offset differs from a nominal PN offset of said given sector;
• said spread spectrum communication system determining a location associated with said mobile station;
• said spread spectrum communication system determining said nominal PN offset of said given sector based on said measured PN offset and said location associated with said mobile station by a process comprising said spread spectrum communication system determining that a distance between said location associated with said mobile station and a location associated with said nominal PN offset at least partially accounts for a phase difference between said nominal PN offset and said measured PN offset;
• said spread spectrum communication system determining whether said given sector is a valid handoff destination based on the difference between the measured PN offset for the given sector and the nominal PN offset and said spread spectrum communication system determining whether said nominal PN offset of said given sector was in a neighbor list transmitted to said mobile station;
• and
• in response to a determination that said given sector is a valid handoff destination, said spread spectrum communication system transmitting to said mobile station a handoff instruction that identifies said given sector by said measured PN offset.