X2 protocol programmability

A method for X2 interface communication, comprising:

• at an X2 gateway for communicating with, and coupled to, a first and a second radio access network (RAN), receiving messages from the first RAN according to a first X2 protocol and mapping the received messages to a second X2 protocol for transmission to the second RAN, wherein the first RAN includes a first vendor's base station and wherein the second RAN includes a second vendor's base station;
• maintaining operational state of at least one of the first RAN or the second RAN at the X2 gateway;
• executing, at an interpreter at the X2 gateway, an executable payload received as part of the received messages;
• updating the maintained operational state of the first RAN or the second RAN at the X2 gateway based on an effect of the executable payload;
• and
• interworking, at the X2 gateway, the first X2 message from the first X2 protocol to the second X2 protocol and associating the first X2 protocol with the first RAN and the second X2 protocol with the second RAN, based on a list of supported X2 protocol versions for the first RAN and the second RAN, wherein at least one of the supported X2 protocol versions is a list of supported individual information elements (IEs) and protocol commands, or an X2 protocol version number, thereby providing interoperability with different vendor's base stations.