A method and apparatus are provided for measuring a link quality by a User Equipment (UE) in a communication system. The method includes receiving, from a wireless access network, a control message including an s-Measure including a serving cell quality threshold and gap configuration information used for setting up and releasing measurement gaps; setting up a measurement gap configuration indicated by the gap configuration information; if a link quality related to a serving cell is lower than the serving cell quality threshold, measuring a link quality related to at least one neighboring cell during a period according to the measurement gap configuration; and transmitting, to the wireless access network, a measurement report including a result of the measuring.