Patent ID: 8416751

Claim:
A method of operating an access point, the method comprising: receiving from an airlink, a first packet communicated from an access terminal, the first packet including information to be communicated to a network device and an airlink address corresponding to said network device, wherein said airlink address indicates a destination of the information, and wherein said network device has an IP address which is longer than said airlink address; determining at the access point the IP address corresponding to said airlink address from information mapping between airlink addresses and IP addresses; transmitting a second packet directed to said network device over a non-air link, said transmitted second packet including said determined IP address and the information to be communicated to said network device; wherein said step of determining the IP address corresponding to said airlink address is performed as a function of information identifying the access terminal from which the first packet was received, said information mapping airlink addresses to IP addresses including information mapping an airlink address to different IP addresses depending on a source of the packet which included the airlink address; wherein said network device is an Internet Attachment point; and wherein said Internet Attachment Point changes for said access terminal due to a change in access terminal location, the airlink address used by the access terminal to access the Internet Attachment Point remaining the same but a mapping between the airlink address and the IP address of the Internet Attachment Point changing when the access terminal changes Internet Attachment Points.