TRANSFERRING MESSAGES

摘要

A method of transferring messages between base stations of a wireless telecommunications network, a proxy node, a method of transmitting messages from a base station, a base station and computer program products are disclosed. The method of transferring messages comprises the steps of: receiving an X2 Application Protocol message within an incoming X2 interface IP packet over an X2 interface from a source base station; extracting, from said X2 Application Protocol message, target base station identity information identifying a target base station; and routing the X2 Application Protocol message to said target base station, said X2 Application Protocol message being carried within an outgoing X2 interface IP packet having a target IP address derived from said target base station identity information. This approach uses a modified X2 Application Protocol message which includes the target base station identity information and which is wrapped within an X2 interface IP packet. This enables the modified message to be received by a proxy and the IP address of the target base station easily derived so that the message may be relayed onto a target base station with minimal processing being required by the proxy. Also, the extraction of the target base station identity information and routing of the X2 Application Protocol message can still effectively be done within the X2 Application Protocol layer which significantly reduces the processing and resources required from the proxy, which can remain effectively stateless. The method also enables a direct X2AP association to remain defined end to end between the source and the target base station without terminating the full X2 Application Protocol in the proxy which makes the proxy simple and without corresponding statefull X2 contexts. All of this improves the flexibility, reliability and scalability of establishing and maintaining X2 connections between base stations compared to existing techniques.