Methods and apparatus for supporting integrity protection in handovers

A method performed in an infrastructure equipment acting as a source infrastructure equipment for a wireless communications device before handing over to another infrastructure equipment acting as a target infrastructure equipment, the source infrastructure equipment and the target infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the method comprising:

• transmitting a handover request message to the target infrastructure equipment indicating a request for handing over the wireless communications device from the source infrastructure equipment to the target infrastructure equipment,
• transmitting from the source infrastructure equipment to the target infrastructure equipment an indication as to whether or not user plane data is being transmitted to or received from the wireless access network via the source infrastructure equipment using an integrity protection scheme,
• receiving a handover command from the target infrastructure equipment indicating that the source infrastructure equipment should handover the wireless communications device to the target infrastructure equipment, and an indication as to whether or not the integrity protection scheme can be used for transmitting or receiving user plane data via the target infrastructure equipment,
• determining, from the wireless communications network, whether or not, the target infrastructure equipment is enabled to support the integrity protection scheme, and
• in response to the target infrastructure equipment being enabled to support the integrity protection scheme, including in the handover request message an information element directing the target infrastructure equipment to enable the integrity protection scheme for transmitting or receiving user plane data via the target infrastructure equipment.