Patent ID: 8797952

Claim:
An anchor base station for use in a system that includes a self-backhauled base station that communicates via a radio interface with the anchor base station, wherein the anchor base station is arranged to communicate with a cellular network's serving gateway (S-GW) or Mobility Management Entity (MME) node of a user equipment via a transport network, wherein the S-GW comprises a second S-GW, wherein the self-backhauled base station is accessible by the second S-GW or MME node via the anchor base station and wherein the anchor base station is operable to: act as a proxy between the second S-GW or MME node and the self-backhauled base station by translating control plane messages and by switching data packets resulting in the user equipment appearing to the second S-GW and the MME node as being directly connected to the anchor base station such that the self-backhauled base station is hidden from the second S-GW and MME node; receive a data packet destined for the user equipment; map the received data packet from an incoming General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP) tunnel to an outgoing GTP tunnel; receive a control message and modify elements of the control message while copying other elements in the control message by modifying a user equipment connection identifier or translating a setup of a bearer for the user equipment to a bearer towards the self-backhauled base station; and forward the modified control message between the self-backhauled base station and the second S-GW or MME node.