Patent ID: 8060094

Claim:
A method, comprising: directing transmission of, from a first network entity to a second network entity, an establishment message providing a first indication which indicates whether the first network entity is capable of handling extended messages; receiving at the first network entity an establishment response message which provides said first indication with respect to the second network entity; and directing transmission of a data message from the first network entity to the second network entity, said data message selectively comprising a first extended message dependent on the first indication received in the response message, said data message further providing a second indication which indicates whether the data message comprises the first extended message, wherein the establishment message, the establishment response, and the data message are base station sub-system application part messages, and wherein at least one of the first network entity or the second network entity is a mobile switching center; wherein at least one of the establishment message, the data message, and the establishment response message comprises a data structure which includes a variable length message part comprising message data, the data structure further comprising a length indicator which indicates a length of the message part, the length indicator comprising one octet if the message part is not an extended message and two octets if the message part is an extended message.