| CPC H04W 76/12 (2018.02) [H04L 61/5007 (2022.05)] | 20 Claims |

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1. A method, comprising:
determining, by a first base station, whether a local communication link between the first base station and a second base station is possible, wherein the local communication link is used to implement an X2-U interface or an Xn-U interface between the first base station and the second base station;
in response to determining that the local communication link between the first base station and the second base station is possible, sending, by the first base station, a request to the second base station for an address suitable for establishing a communication link between the first base station and the second base station, wherein the request includes a first local Internet Protocol (IP) address for a first baseband unit entity of the first base station;
determining, by the second base station, whether to include a second local IP address for a second baseband unit entity of the second base station in a response to the request from the first base station;
in response to determining to include the second local IP address for the second baseband unit entity of the second base station in the response, sending, by the second base station, the response to the request to the first base station, the response to the request including the second local IP address for the second baseband unit entity of the second base station; and
establishing the local communication link between the first base station and the second base station using the first local IP address and the second local IP address without using a security gateway.
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