Patent ID: 8155677

Claim:
In a network system comprising at least one mobile device, message entity gateway, short code translator and application server, a method of translating and routing short code addresses, comprising: providing a plurality of short codes and corresponding application server destination addresses, wherein each short code is a 4-digit short code; at said mobile device, initiating a mobile-originated message to the application server, said message addressed with a 4-digit sort code; and forwarding the mobile-originated message to the message entity gateway; at said message entity gateway, if the corresponding destination address of the 4-digit short code was previously cached, routing the mobile-originated message to the application server based on the destination address, else, querying the short code translator with said 4-digit short code for said corresponding application server destination address, caching the destination address for future use, establishing a connection between the message entity gateway and the application server, and routing the mobile-originated message to the application server based on the destination address, wherein the short code translator comprises a plurality of decentralized servers to cache a common short code translation database.