Wireless communications network, infrastructure equipment, communications device and methods

An infrastructure equipment forming part of a radio access network part of a wireless communications network, the radio access network part comprising one or more base stations and one or more non-terrestrial network parts, the non-terrestrial network parts each transmitting one or more spot beams to provide a first type of wireless access interface and the base stations each forming a second type of wireless access interface, the first type of wireless access interface and the second type of wireless access interface each being for transmitting signals to and receiving signals representing data from a communications device within a coverage region of a cell of one of the base stations or a coverage region formed by one of the spot beams, wherein the communications device is operating in an RRC inactive state, the infrastructure equipment comprising controller circuitry and transceiver circuitry which are configured in combination

• to configure a notification area of the radio access network part by determining one or more of the base stations and/or one or more of the non-terrestrial network parts which form part of the notification area, the base stations and/or the non-terrestrial network parts of the notification area being for use in transmitting signals to the communications device from the wireless communications network,
• to determine, based on the notification area and on a present time, which one of the base stations and/or the non-terrestrial network parts of the notification area is presently serving the communications device, and
• to transmit a paging message to the serving base station or serving non terrestrial network part for subsequent transmission to the communications device.

A method for operating a communications device in a wireless communications network, the wireless communications network comprising a core network part and a radio access network part comprising one or more base stations and one or more non-terrestrial network parts, the non-terrestrial network parts each transmitting one or more spot beams to provide a first type of wireless access interface and the base stations each forming a second type of wireless access interface, the first type of wireless access interface and the second type of wireless access interface each being for transmitting signals to and receiving signals representing data from a communications device within a coverage region of a cell of one of the base stations or a coverage region formed by one of the spot beams, wherein the communications device is operating in an RRC inactive state, the method comprising

• receiving, from a serving one of the base stations or non-terrestrial network parts, an indication of a notification area comprising the serving base station or serving non-terrestrial network part, the notification area further comprising one or more of the base stations and/or one or more of the non-terrestrial network parts, the base stations and/or the non-terrestrial network parts of the notification area being for use in transmitting signals to the communications device from the wireless communications network, and
• transmitting, either to one of the base stations and/or the non-terrestrial network parts of the radio access network part or to the core network via one of the base stations and/or the non-terrestrial network parts of the radio access network part, location information indicating a geographic area in which the communications device is located and a notification area update indicating that the communications device has moved outside the coverage of the base stations and/or the non-terrestrial network parts of the notification area.