In a communication system in which a mobile station accessing the main network via a plurality of base stations, the mobile station can freely select any of the base stations as a forward link (FL) serving station. In addition, the mobile station can also freely select another or the same base station as a reverse link (RL) serving station. The mobile station has stored in its memory a plurality of routes corresponding to the plurality of base stations, with each route dedicatedly assigned to a particular base station. During handoff of one base station to another as either the FL or the RL serving station, exchanged data packets are processed in the respective routes of the base stations involved.