Patent ID: 8228933

Claim:
A method of operating a communication system having a base station that communicates over an Internet Protocol (IP) network with a service node to provide a wireless telephony service to an end-user, the method comprising: in the base station, detecting that the end-user has turned on a base station on/off switch, and in response, transferring a registration request to a service node over an IP network; in the service node, receiving the registration request from the base station over the IP network and processing the registration request to register the base station; in the base station, exchanging wireless telephony signals with a plurality of end-user communication devices, wherein the wireless telephony signals transport end-user communications, exchanging IP packets between the base station and the service node over the IP network, wherein the IP packets transport the end-user communications; in the service node, processing the end-user communications to provide the telephony service to the end-user communication devices, wherein the service node does not provide the telephony service to end-user communication devices through the base station until the base station registration is complete; and establishing an IP tunnel over the IP network between the base station and the service node during the registration and wherein exchanging the IP packets between the base station and the service node over the IP network comprises exchanging the IP packets between the base station and the service node over the IP tunnel.