Patent ID: 8279835

Claim:
A method to facilitate user equipment (UE) handoff within a packet data communication system, the method comprising: receiving at the Evolved NodeB (eNB) via a serving relay node an indication that the UE will undergo a handoff from the serving relay node to a target node; receiving at the eNB first packet data for the UE, the first packet data comprising a first Internet protocol (IP) header and a first payload, wherein the first IP header identifies an address of the eNB; extracting, at the eNB, the first payload from the first packet data to form a first packet data unit (PDU), wherein the first PDU comprises a second IP header and the extracted first payload, wherein the second IP header identifies the address of the eNB and an address of the target node; and transmitting, from the eNB to the target node, the first PDU to permit the target node to transmit the first payload of the first PDU to the UE, the target node being identified based upon the address of the target node identified by the second IP header.