a method and apparatus for supporting routing area update procedures in a single tunnel general packet radio services - based wireless communication system are disclosed . a wireless transmit / receive unit sends a routing area update request message to a serving general packet radio service support node via a radio network controller . the sgsn sends an update packet data protocol context request message to a gateway gprs support node . the ggsn sends an update pdp context response message to the sgsn . the sgsn sends a tunnel establishment request message to the rnc and a single tunnel is established between the rnc and the ggsn . for handover operations , a previous single tunnel established between the ggsn and another rnc is released and the routing area update is accepted and completed .