Patent ID: 8275376

Claim:
An access network adapted to communicate with a mobile station and a core network portion of a public mobile network, said access network comprising: a plurality of local base stations each defining a mini-cell and adapted to communicate with mobile stations located in said mini-cell over an unlicensed-radio interface; and an access network controller adapted to communicate with said core network portion over a predetermined mobile network interface and connected to said plurality of local base stations, wherein all said mini-cells are assigned a common identifier associated with said access network controller, said common identifier identifying a single cell address known to said core network, said single cell address being a cell address of said public mobile network assigned to said access network such that from a perspective of said core network, said access network is a single cell of said public mobile network, and wherein said access network controller is adapted to receive a handover request containing said common identifier from said core network, to respond to said handover request by assigning a handover reference to said request, and to setup a communication path between said mobile station and said core network when a message containing said handover reference is received from said mobile station.