Patent ID: 8553643

Claim:
An apparatus in an evolved packet core (EPC) network, the apparatus comprising: at least one processor configured to communicate with a first radio access network (RAN), to receive a message to handover from the first RAN to a second RAN, the handover being performed by messages exchanged between an inter access system anchor (Inter-AS Anchor) of the EPC network associated with the first RAN and a serving general packet radio service (GPRS) support node (SGSN) associated with the second RAN via a GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP) across a Gn interface wherein the Gn interface is a legacy interface between a SGSN and a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) within a GPRS network and wherein the Inter-AS Anchor uses the Gn interface to emulates another SGSN in order to communicate with the SGSN associated with the second RAN, and to communicate with the second RAN after the handover; and a memory coupled to the at least one processor.