Provided is a handover method of a wireless communication system using a hierarchical cellular scheme. In the method, signal quality of a serving node is measured, so that whether to start scanning for a handover is determined. When the scanning for the handover starts, signal qualities of a serving cell including the serving node and one or more neighbor cells are measured through a first preamble including a first identifier for distinguishing a cell. An intra-cell handover or an inter-cell handover is selected using the signal qualities of the serving cell and the neighbor cells. Therefore, a terminal can easily distinguish between the inter-cell handover and the intra-cell handover, and an overhead during a handover can be reduced because an intra-cell handover procedure is simplified.