Method and apparatus for migration and co-existence deployments between service based architecture and P2P architectures in a wireless communication system

A user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the UE comprising:

• a transceiver, and
• a controller coupled with the transceiver and configured to:
• receive a message from one or more radio access network (RAN) nodes;
• determine presence of an information element (IE) in the message;
• determine an interface protocol supported by each of the one or more RAN nodes based on a value indicated in the IE;
• and
• establish communication with a first RAN node of the one or more RAN nodes based on a priority associated with the interface protocol of the first RAN node.

A network entity in a wireless communication system, the network entity comprising:

• a transceiver, and
• a controller coupled with the transceiver and configured to:
• determine an interface protocol to be used for transmitting a message to each of one or more RAN nodes based on interface information stored in a routing table;
• and
• transmit the message to the one or more RAN nodes using the determined interface protocol for each of the one or more RAN nodes.