Patent ID: 6993359

Claim:
A communication system comprising: two or more wireless networks, each of said wireless networks operating with a wireless protocol for communications with mobile stations, said wireless networks including two or more wireless cells for providing communications to said mobile stations, each of said wireless cells including a base transceiver station that defines the radio boundary of each wireless cell, each of said wireless networks including signaling, voice, and data traffic links that enable network communications with base transceiver stations, at least one wireless network further comprising: signaling, voice, and data traffic links using a wired-packet protocol, a connection unit that interconnects voice and data traffic links using the wired-packet protocol with the voice and data traffic links of one or more wireless networks, an interworking unit that interconnects signaling traffic links using the wired-packet protocol with the signaling traffic links of one or more wireless networks, an interface for interfacing the wireless protocol and the wired-packet protocol whereby base transceiver stations communicate with mobile stations using the wireless protocol and use the wired-packet protocol to enable handover of mobile stations from one of said wireless cells to another one of said wireless cells, and a controller for controlling the handover of mobile stations from one of said wireless cells to another one of said wireless cells.