X2 brokering with aggregation optimization

A method, comprising:

• associating a first base station with a first base station identifier at a signaling protocol gateway, the signaling protocol gateway providing gateway services for at least two control plane signaling protocols between base stations, and with a first Internet Protocol (IP) address of the signaling protocol gateway, the at least two control plane signaling protocols being X2 and at least one of Xx and Xn, the first base station being an aggregated base station;
• associating a second base station with a second base station identifier at the signaling protocol gateway, and with a second IP address of the signaling protocol gateway, the second base station being an aggregated base station;
• establishing a first signaling protocol connection between a third base station and the first base station via the signaling protocol gateway with the first base station using the first IP address of the signaling protocol gateway;
• establishing a signaling protocol connection between the third base station and the second base station with the second base station using the second IP address of the signaling protocol gateway,
• the signaling protocol gateway providing a single gateway for establishing a plurality of signaling protocol connections with a plurality of virtualized base stations;
• wherein the signaling protocol gateway provides stateful proxying of the signaling protocol connection and a dynamic mapping between the first base station identifier and the first IP address of the signaling protocol gateway, thereby enabling the third base station to establish a connection to the first and the second base station via the signaling protocol gateway without an IP address of the first base station and an IP address of the second base station;
• and
• interworking or translating X2 to Xx communications, and Xn to Xx communications, based on supported protocols of at least two of the first, the second, and the third base stations.