The present invention relates to a method for relocating control plane functionality of a serving
base station in a mobile communication
system comprising a mobile terminal and a plurality of base stations. Further, the present invention relates to a
base station in a mobile communication
system and to the mobile communication
system. To tackle potentially intolerable
delay of control signaling due to frequent serving
network element relocations in the
network architecture the present invention suggests a partial
relocation of a serving
network element wherein the control plane functionality is relocated but connection to the
core network via a gateway is maintained through the previous serving
network element. A further aspect of the present invention suggests a total
relocation, where control plane functionalities are relocated and where a new connection to the
core network is established between the new serving network element and the gateway. Also decision criteria on whether to perform partial or total
relocation are provided.