Patent ID: 8054829

Claim:
A method to support communication with a first network entity in a first network and a second network entity in a second network, the first and second network entities having a common address, the method comprising: receiving at a signaling gateway a message including the common address via a signaling link having an interface identifier; using the interface identifier of the signaling link to determine whether the message is for the first network or the second network; processing in the signaling gateway at least one of a message associated with the first network entity by translating between the common address for the first network entity and a first symbolic address unique to the first and second networks for routing the message to one of the first network entity and the second network entity as a destination and a message associated with the second network entity by translating between the common address for the second network entity and a second symbolic address unique to the first and second networks for routing the message to one of the first network entity and the second network entity as the destination; and sending the message by the signaling gateway to at least one of the first network entity using the first symbolic address and second network entity using the second symbolic address.