System and method for low-overhead interoperability between 4g and 5g networks

A method, comprising:

• receiving, by a virtualized base station, a first set of media access control (“MAC”) protocol data units (“PDUs”) from a set of radio equipment associated with a wireless telecommunications network, the first set of MAC PDUs corresponding to traffic received by the set of radio equipment from a UE via a first radio access technology (“RAT”);
• receiving, by the virtualized base station, a second set of MAC PDUs from the set of radio equipment associated with the wireless telecommunications network, the second set of MAC PDUs corresponding to traffic received by the set of radio equipment from the UE via a second RAT;
• generating, by the virtualized base station, General Packet Radio (“GPRS”) Tunneling Protocol (“GTP”) PDUs based on the first set of MAC PDUs and the second set of MAC PDUs;
• and
• forwarding, by the virtualized base station, the generated GTP PDUs to a core network of the wireless telecommunications network.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing processor-executable instructions, which, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the one or more processors to:

• receive a first set of media access control (“MAC”) protocol data units (“PDUs”) from a set of radio equipment associated with a wireless telecommunications network, the first set of MAC PDUs corresponding to traffic received by the set of radio equipment from a UE via a first radio access technology (“RAT”);
• receive a second set of MAC PDUs from the set of radio equipment associated with the wireless telecommunications network, the second set of MAC PDUs corresponding to traffic received by the set of radio equipment from the UE via a second RAT;
• generate General Packet Radio (“GPRS”) Tunneling Protocol (“GTP”) PDUs based on the first set of MAC PDUs and the second set of MAC PDUs;
• and
• forward the generated GTP PDUs to a core network of the wireless telecommunications network.