Patent ID: 8934911
Filing Date: 2015-01-13
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
1. A cellular communications network comprising: a plurality of wireless network communications base stations of a first type; a plurality of wireless network communications base stations of a second type; a plurality of wireless communication cells of a first type which are provided by said base stations of said first type, each cell providing wireless communications cover over a predetermined geographic region to collectively form a macro-cellular communications network; a plurality of wireless communication cells of a second type which are provided by said base stations of said second type, wherein the plurality of said second type of cells collectively provides wireless communications cover within a region smaller than the predetermined geographic region of said first type of wireless communication cells; a gateway node providing an interface between a routing domain associated with cells of said first type and a routing domain associated with cells of said, second type; a routing node for routing communications and signalling in said macro-cellular communications network; and a first location register for registering a location of a plurality of mobile communications devices in one or more cells of said first type in said macro-cellular communications network; wherein the first location register records a location of at least one of said plurality of mobile communications devices as a virtual location if said mobile communication device reports its location to the routing node for said macro-cellular communications network as within one of a predetermined plurality of wireless communication cells of said second type, wherein in said first location register, a virtual cell identifier and an identifier for the cell of the second type is provided in addition to or instead of the identifier for the cell of the first type stored on said first location register.