Patent ID: 8364180
Filing Date: 2013-01-29
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
1. A telecommunications system for communicating a Short Message Service (SMS) message to a user equipment using a subscriber identity number terminating on an Internet Protocol network using an Internet Protocol (IP), the user equipment acting as an Internet Protocol (IP) client, the system comprising a short message service centre (SM-SC), a gateway mobile switching centre (GMSC) of an SMS network for communicating SMS messages, an Internet Protocol/SMS (IP/SMS) gateway for communicating between the SMS network and the IP network and a home location database (HLR/HSS) for maintaining address data identifying a current location of a user equipment, the gateway mobile switching centre being operable in response to the SMS message received from the short message service centre to interrogate the home location database for an address to which the SMS message should be sent, the home location database being operable to provide the gateway mobile switching centre with an address of the IP/SMS gateway stored in association with the subscriber identity number, the gateway switching centre being operable to send the SMS message to the IP/SMS gateway, the IP/SMS gateway being operable to retrieve an Internet Protocol address corresponding to the subscriber identity number stored in an IP/SMS database associated with the IP/SMS gateway, and to communicate the SMS message to the user equipment at the retrieved IP address via the IP network, wherein the IP network includes an authentication, authorization and accounting server which is operable to determine the IP/SMS gateway address from the IP network via which the user equipment is communicating, and to communicate the IP/SMS gateway address to the home location database, the IP/SMS gateway address being stored in the home location database in association with the subscriber identity number for retrieval by the gateway mobile switching centre in response to the received SMS message.