Patent ID: 8516055

Claim:
A method operable at a store-and-forward server associated with a wide area packet network and an Internet Protocol (IP)-based wireless network, the method comprising: maintaining, at the store-and-forward server, a mapping between a temporary Internet Protocol (IP) address of a mobile data communication device and a unique permanent identifier of the mobile data communication device; maintaining, at the store-and-forward server, a mapping between the unique permanent identifier of the mobile data communication device and a phone number associated with the mobile data communication device; receiving a message redirected from a message server over the wide area packet network, the message contained in an envelope that includes the unique permanent identifier of the mobile data communication device; and upon determining that the temporary IP address of the mobile data communication device is invalid, performing the following: transmitting a connection request command to the phone number of the mobile data communication device to instruct the mobile data communication device to acquire an IP address; receiving from the mobile data communication device a new IP address assigned to the mobile data communication device; and using the new IP address received from the mobile data communication device, transmitting the message to the mobile data communication device over the IP-based wireless network.