| CPC H04W 76/16 (2018.02) [H04W 76/12 (2018.02); H04W 92/045 (2013.01); H04W 92/20 (2013.01)] | 18 Claims |

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1. A method for establishing indirect connectivity between virtualized 5G gNodeBs and virtualized 4G eNodeBs, the method comprising:
virtualizing, at a gateway situated between a radio access network (RAN) and a 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) core network, an eNodeB over a standard S1 interface toward the 4G LTE core network;
receiving, at the gateway, an X2 setup request sent from a primary X2 node;
registering, at the gateway, an Internet Protocol (IP) address for a secondary X2 node in association with the primary X2 node, the IP address for the secondary X2 node received from the primary X2 node; and
subsequently establishing a data path for data transfer from the gateway to the secondary X2 node to facilitate handover of a UE from the primary X2 node to the secondary X2 node.
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