Delayed Base Station Relocation in Distributed Radio Access Networks

摘要

The present invention relates to a method for relocating control plane functionality of a serving base station in a mobile communication system comprising a mobile terminal and a plurality of base stations. Further, the present invention relates to a base station in a mobile communication system and to the mobile communication system. To tackle potentially intolerable delay of control signaling due to frequent serving network element relocations in the network architecture the present invention suggests a partial relocation of a serving network element wherein the control plane functionality is relocated but connection to the core network via a gateway is maintained through the previous serving network element. A further aspect of the present invention suggests a total relocation, where control plane functionalities are relocated and where a new connection to the core network is established between the new serving network element and the gateway. Also decision criteria on whether to perform partial or total relocation are provided.