Patent ID: 7193990

Claim:
A telecommunication network comprising: at least one radio access network, a core network, and at least one terminal device, wherein said core network includes at least one gateway device, wherein said core network includes at least one serving network control device configured to serve the at least one radio access network and provide serving functions including call setup and call control functions, and further configured to control said at least one gateway device by transmitting a control information to the gateway device, wherein the gateway device is non-serving, wherein said radio access network is directly connected to the gateway device via a first interface, wherein a second interface is connected between the network control device and the gateway device, the control information being transmitted from the network control device to the gateway device via said second interface, wherein said telecommunication network is configured to route user data directly, without being transmitted through the network control device, between said radio access network and said at least one gateway device via said first interface, achieving substantial separation of a control plane from a user plane; and wherein the gateway device is configured to provide conversion between audio signals carried on telephone circuits and data packets carried over the Internet or other packet networks.