In this mode, the MS performs the scanning operation (i.e., detecting and measuring the signal strength of neighboring base stations) and may temporarily be unavailable to the serving BS. The MS can be instructed to transit to Scanning Mode via explicit MAC signaling. During the Connected State, the MS maintains at least one transport connection as established during Access State; however, the MS and BS may establish additional transport connections. It must be noted that each connection has unique Quality of Service parameters and is associated with a service flow. In addition, in order to reduce power consumption, either MS or BS can request transition to Sleep Mode. Also, the MS can scan neighbor base stations and perform cell reselection which provides more robust and reliable connections. The scanning interval is defined as a time period intended for the mobile station to monitor neighbor base stations and to determine the suitability of those base stations as targets for handover. Idle State: Idle State allows an MS to become periodically available for downlink broadcast messages without registration at a specific BS as the MS traverses across the network populated by multiple base stations, and thus allows the MS to conserve power and operational resources. The Idle State consists of two separate modes, Paging Available Mode and Paging Unavailable Mode. During Idle State, the MS may attempt power saving by switching between Paging Available and Paging Unavailable modes. In Paging Available Mode, the MS may be paged by the BS. If the MS is paged, it transitions to the Access State for network re-entry. The MS may perform location update procedure during Idle State. In the Paging Unavailable Mode, the MS is not required to monitor the downlink channel in order to reduce its power consumption. The IEEE 802.16 mobile station state transition diagram comprises four distinct operational states and is similar to that of the legacy system (as shown in Figure 4-1) with the exception that intra-state procedures and 