A method, apparatus and system for wireless communication are described. The method includes transmitting and receiving data to and from one or more wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) via an underlay system access link. The underlay system is non-standalone, and control information is provided from an overlay system. An underlay base station is linked to other underlay base stations to implement a mesh backhaul. The method also includes transmitting and receiving at least a portion of the data to or from an overlay base station via backhaul links and receiving control data from the overlay base station. The data is split at a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity, and the PDCP entity terminates in the overlay base station and a radio link control (RLC) entity terminates in the underlay base station.