Method and apparatus for performing access control or membership verification for dual connectivity in wireless communication system

A second base station in a wireless communication system, the second base station comprising:

• a memory;
• a transceiver;
• and
• a processor, operably coupled to the memory and the transceiver, and configured to:
• establish a dual connectivity between a user equipment (UE) and each of a first base station and the second base station, wherein the dual connectivity is established by:
• controlling the transceiver to receive a secondary node addition request message including a closed subscriber group (CSG) membership status of the UE directly from the first base station;
• trusting the CSG membership status of the UE;
• and
• controlling the transceiver to transmit a secondary node addition request acknowledge message directly to the first base station as a response to the secondary node addition request message;
• and
• after establishing the dual connectivity in which the UE is connected to both the first base station and the second base station:
• control the transceiver to receive a verified CSG membership status of the UE from the first base station,
• wherein the verified CSG membership status of the UE is first received by the first base station from a core network node which verifies the CSG membership status of the UE received from the first base station;
• and
• update the CSG membership status of the UE based on the verified CSG membership status of the UE.