Techniques for supporting communication with disjoint links and common links are described. A sector may broadcast an overhead message and/or send unicast messages to indicate whether the sector supports disjoint links. A terminal may receive at least one message indicating whether disjoint links are supported by at least one sector. When disjoint links are supported, a forward link (FL) serving sector and a reverse link (RL) serving sector may be independently selected for the terminal. When disjoint links are not supported, a single sector may be selected as both the FL and RL serving sectors for the terminal. Handoff of the terminal may be performed independently for the forward and reverse links if disjoint links are supported and may be performed jointly if disjoint links are not supported.