Patent ID: 8437750

Claim:
A method of operation of a mobile network comprising a central node, an MSC and a HLR and at least one remote cell having remote nodes linked with the central node via a remote backhaul communication link, the method comprising steps of: a mobile device registered with a remote cell making a voice or data call to a called device registered with the same or a different remote cell, a central node intercepting a call setup message for said call, the central node interrogating the HLR using the MSISDN contained in the intercepted call setup message to obtain the IMSI of the called subscriber, the central network node caching said IMSI and maintaining and updating said cache, and replicating said cache in the remote node, the central node or the remote node intercepting a paging message sent to alert the called subscriber, the central node or the remote node looking up the cache, and if an IMSI retrieved from the cache matches the IMSI received in the paging message: the central node or the remote node making a decision to connect the call locally without it being routed through the MSC, if the decision is made by the central node, the central node sending a signal to the remote node instructing it to directly connect the call, and the remote node connecting the call locally.