Patent ID: 7768993

Claim:
A method of operating a radio access network, the radio access network comprising a radio network layer and a transport network layer, the method comprising the steps of: running an application process executed in a process module in the radio network layer; the application process generating a customer datagram; encapsulating the customer datagram in a payload of a second datagram, the second datagram having a header and the payload, the header having a first tier address (FTA) and a second tier address (STA), the STA being used only within the radio network layer and identifying the application process; transmitting the second datagram to a host switch by the process module; and switching the second datagram to a point of attachment (PoA) based on the FTA, the PoA being part of a terrestrial transport network; wherein an addressing scheme of the terrestrial transport network is independent of the FTA and the STA.