Patent ID: 8885500

Claim:
A method of operating a radio access network, the method comprising: determining that an interface needs to be established between a femto radio base station gateway and a macro radio base station; and establishing said interface by including abbreviated femtocell information in a message of an interface setup procedure sent between the femto radio base station gateway and the macro radio base station: wherein said interface is established as an interface between radio base stations, such that the femto radio base station gateway appears to the macro radio base station as another radio base station, and wherein the femto radio base station gateway also establishes: an interface to a femto radio base station, wherein the interface to the femto radio base station is established as an interface between a radio base station and a core network in order to appear to the femto radio base station as a core network; and an interface to the core network, wherein the interface to the core network is established as an interface between a radio base station and a core network in order to appear to the core network as a radio base station.