Patent ID: 7447774

Claim:
An operator network providing access between a radio access network and a plurality of data networks, the operator network comprising: a first domain name server configured to return an internet protocol (IP) address for a load balance unit in response to domain name requests identifying any one of a plurality of data networks; a second domain name server configured to return IP addresses for one or more gateways serving a data network identified in a domain name request; a serving node operable to receive a request from a mobile node for access to a selected one of the data networks, to communicate a domain name request identifying the selected data network to the first domain name server, to receive a response from the first domain name server identifying the IP address for the load balance unit, the network access request identifying the mobile node and the selected data network; the load balance unit operable to maintaining mapping information for previously processed network access requests to receive the network access request to communicate a domain name request identifying the selected data network to the second domain name server, to receive a response from the second domain name server identifying IP addresses for the one or more gateways serving the selected data network, to use the mapping information to select one of the gateways providing access to the data network, and forward the request to the selected gateway.