Measurements for identifying pre-candidate cells are made by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) operating with a switched beam antenna in a wireless communication system. The switched beam antenna is a smart antenna generating a plurality of directional beams and an omni-directional beam. The WTRU measures signals from cells not in an active set of cells to define a pre-candidate set of cells. Measured signals from cells in the pre-candidate set of cells are compared to a threshold, and the corresponding cells are moved from the pre-candidate set of cells to a candidate set of cells based upon the comparison to the threshold. A measurement report is then sent to the network.