A method for operating a centralized radio access network (C-RAN) having a plurality of base stations, wherein at least a portion of base station processing is performed at a centralized processing entity, and wherein a virtualized environment is provided by the centralized processing entity such that the plurality of base stations run in virtual machines, includes relocating base station processing from a first virtual machine that performs base station processing for a first base station that serves an initial cell to a second virtual machine by: introducing a target cell for which the second virtual machine performs base station processing, simultaneously transmitting, via at least a portion of antennas of the first base station, signals for both the initial cell and the target cell, and handing over user terminals that are assigned to the initial cell to the target cell.