Networks elements, wireless communication system and methods therefor

摘要

A method and apparatus for obtaining a subscriber identity of a User Equipment 105 being served by a LTE cell 104 exploits a conventional handover procedure by generating a "fake" handover request at the LTE {source} cell 104 designating a 3G cell 102 as the target. The target 3G cell is arranged to forward the subscriber identity which is included in a relocation request message received from a core network 107 to the LTE cell and to send a relocation failure message back to the core network.