Patent ID: 7924819

Claim:
A radio access network system comprising: a second coverage zone control component configured to control a second set of base stations in a second packet data zone and communicatively coupled to a first coverage zone control component by an incumbent messaging system, the first coverage zone control component configured to control a first set of base stations in a first packet data zone and operatively coupled to a packet data serving node; and an addressing construct adapted to create a unique locator for each coverage zone control component in the radio access network, each unique locator being an internet protocol (IP) address that is used by a corresponding coverage zone control component to communicate with other coverage zone control components across radio access networks, the IP address comprising octets for a vendor identifier (VID), a system identifier (SID), a network identifier (NID), and a packet zone identifier (PZID) of the corresponding coverage zone control component, wherein the second coverage zone control component is further configured to retrieve session information for a packet data session for a mobile station over the incumbent messaging system, the second coverage zone control component communicating with the first coverage zone control component by utilizing the first coverage zone control component's unique locator, and wherein the first coverage zone control component's unique locator is received by the second coverage zone control component from the mobile station.