Patent ID: 8661146

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a gateway, a domain name system (DNS) query from a requestor to obtain an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a mobile device to enable communication with the mobile device, wherein the gateway is configured to anchor a plurality of mobile devices for communication over a cellular network; determining, by the gateway, whether the DNS query can be resolved based on information at the gateway to identify the IP address of the mobile device, wherein determining whether the DNS query can be resolved based on information at the gateway includes determining an attachment status of the mobile device that indicates whether the mobile device is currently anchored at the gateway, and if the DNS query cannot be resolved at the gateway, initiating, by a DNS functionality integrated in the gateway, a DNS procedure for identifying the IP address of the mobile device; determining, by the gateway, whether the IP address of the mobile device is a local address, wherein the local address is an address to which the requestor cannot send data over the public communications network without network address translation; if the IP address of the mobile device is a local address, determining, by the gateway, a public IP address of the mobile device to be associated with the IP address of the mobile device, wherein the public IP address provides an address to which the requestor can send data to establish communication with the mobile device over the public communications network; and sending, by the gateway to the requestor, a response to the DNS query that includes the public IP address of the mobile device to allow communication between the requestor and the mobile device; if the IP address of the mobile device is a public IP address, sending, by the gateway to the requestor, a response to the DNS query that includes the IP address of the mobile device to allow communication between the requestor and the mobile device.