Patent ID: 8019331

Claim:
For a communication system comprising (i) a first communication network comprising a plurality of access areas and a core network and (ii) a second communication network comprising a plurality of access areas and a network controller for communicatively coupling the plurality of second communication network access areas to the core network, a method comprising: at the network controller, receiving a message from a user equipment (UE) through an access point of a particular access area of the second communication network, the message comprising a first area identifier for identifying an access area of the communication system last visited by the UE; at the network controller, adding a second area identifier to the message, wherein the second area identifier is for identifying the plurality of second communication network access areas as a single access area to the core network; from the network controller, sending the message comprising the second area identifier to the core network before communicatively coupling said UE to the core network; at the network controller, receiving a response to the message from the core network, the response comprising the second area identifier; and from the network controller, passing the response comprising the second area identifier to the access point of the particular access area, the access point communicatively coupling said UE to the network controller and replacing the second area identifier in the response with a third area identifier identifying the particular access area of the access point before sending the response to the UE.