INTEGRATED RADIO TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK AND METHOD OF INTERWORKING AN ANSI-41 NETWORK AND THE GENERAL PACKET RADIO SERVICE (GPRS)

摘要

An integrated radio telecommunications network which integrates an ANSI-41 circuit switched network and a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) packet data network to support a mobile station which operates in both the ANSI-41 network and the GPRS network. An interworking function (37) interfaces a mobile switching center (MSC) (23) in the ANSI-41 network with a serving GPRS switching node (SGSN) (32) in the GPRS network by mapping circuit switched signaling utilized by the MSC into GPRS packet switched signaling utilized by the SGSN, and mapping GPRS packet switched signaling into circuit switched signaling. An interworking GPRS base station controller (39) interfaces the SGSN with a GPRS/ANSI-136 base station (26) which supports both ANSI-136 operations and GPRS operations. The interworking GPRS base station controller adapts the traffic signaling format utilized by the SGSN into an air interface traffic signaling format utilized by the GPRS/ANSI-136 base station. An authentication center interface (Fl) passes the authentication state of the mobile station between an ANSI-41 home location register/authentication center (HLR/AC) (21) in the ANSI-41 network, and a GPRS home location register/authentication center (HLR/AUC) (31) in the GPRS network.