Patent ID: 8045567

Claim:
A method of resolving, on behalf of a first mobile telephone service provider, routing for a Short Message Service (SMS) message, the method being performed by a service network disposed, logically, between the first mobile telephone service provider and a second mobile telephone service provider and including at least one data center, wherein a destination of the message is based on a mobile telephone number, the method comprising: determining if the telephone number is an international telephone number; if the telephone number is an international telephone number: obtaining a mobile country code; determining whether the country associated with the mobile country code supports number portability and, if so, performing a routing information lookup to extract a destination carrier ID and roaming information, wherein the roaming information comprises information about a visited mobile network wherein the routing information lookup comprises a single query to obtain the destination carrier ID, and if not, obtaining a mobile network carrier identifier (ID) based on the telephone number; if the telephone number is not an international telephone number: obtaining the mobile network carrier ID based on at least one of (i) numbering plan area/exchange (NPA/NXX) of the telephone number or (ii) a local service management system number portability council (LSMS NPAC) database query; obtaining a list of allowed routes for a destination carrier associated with the mobile network carrier ID; resolving route addressing for the destination carrier; obtaining real time route performance metrics; and solving a cost function to identify an appropriate route for the message.