Disclosed is a method for recognizing by a Mobile Subscriber Station (MSS) whether a serving Base Station (BS) retains connection information in a mobile communication system including the serving BS for providing a service to the MSS and a target BS adjacent to the serving BS. The method includes the steps of receiving a handover request message from the serving BS, the handover request message including a resource remain type field representing whether the connection information having been set with the serving BS is retained, and a resource retain time field representing a connection information-retaining time by the serving BS, and recognizing that the serving BS retains the connection information during a time determined by a value of the resource retain time field.