APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR LOCAL MOBILITY MANAGEMENT IN A CLUSTERED FEMTOCELL NETWORK

摘要

A clustered femtocell network including a plurality of femtocell access points that are connected via a logical interface to a mobile network in order to provide user equipments with radio access to the mobile network, wherein the mobile network includes a Mobility Management Function-MMF-, is characterized in that a logical function-Proxy Mobility Management Function P-MMF-is provided that localizes mobility management of the user equipments in the clustered femtocell network, wherein the P-MMF intercepts and interprets mobility-related signaling between the MMF and the femtocell access points in such a way that it emulates towards the femtocell access points the behavior of the mobile network's MMF and towards the mobile network's MMF the behavior of the femtocell access points. Furthermore, a method for operating a clustered femtocell network is disclosed.