Abstract: A mobile communications system includes a system controller and cell sites having base station systems. The network between the system controller and the base station systems is a packet-switched network, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) network. In one embodiment, the mobile communications system is a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) system. The system controller is a serving GPRS support node (SGSN), and the network between the SGSN and the base station systems includes a Gb network. In one arrangement, IP addressing is used to communicate messages between the base station systems and the SGSN.

Abstract: A mobile communications network includes base stations and a system controller, such as a serving GPRS support node (SGSN) of a General Packet Radio Service network. An interface, such as a Gb interface, is provided between each base station and the system controller. A plurality of paths (e.g., Network Service virtual circuits) in the interface are identified, with each path defined by an address in the base station and an address in the system controller. One of the plurality of paths is associated for a given mobile station. Load sharing can be accomplished by employing either an implicit path negotiation or an explicit path negotiation.

Abstract: A mobile communications system includes a system controller that provides access control for mobile stations within the network controlled, by the system controller. In one example, the mobile communications network is a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network. The system controller provides access to a packet-based data network. In addition, the system controller enables prepaid short message service (SMS), in which mobile stations can originate or receive short messages according to the prepaid SMS. A flag kept in a home location register (HLR) stores a field to indicate if the user has subscribed to prepaid SMS. In one embodiment, the field is an access point name (APN) field according to the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) protocol.