A method to facilitate user equipment (UE) handoff within a packet data communication system includes receiving at the Evolved NodeB (eNB) via a serving relay node an indication that the UE will undergo a handoff from the serving relay node to a target node; receiving at the eNB first packet data having a first payload and a first Internet protocol (IP) header identifying an address of the eNB; extracting, at the eNB, the first payload from the first packet data to form a first packet data unit (PDU) including the extracted first payload and a second IP header identifying the address of the eNB and an address of the target node; and transmitting, from the eNB to the target node, the first PDU to permit the target node to transmit the first payload of the first PDU to the UE, the target node being identified using the second IP header.