Patent ID: 7768941

Claim:
A system comprising: a shared network; a radio access network, the radio access network including a base transceiver station (BTS) for communicating with a wireless terminal over an air interface and a packet data serving node (PDSN) that is utilized for routing packets between the wireless terminal and the shared network; an enterprise network; a resource on the enterprise network, wherein the wireless terminal and the resource are able to exchange the packets over a communication pathway, the communication pathway extending through the radio access network, the shared network, and the enterprise network, wherein the packets include an enterprise address that indicates the wireless terminal is authorized to communicate over the enterprise network; a VPN server in the communication pathway that is configured to tunnel the packets through the shared network to a VPN terminator, wherein the packets are unencrypted when communicated to the VPN server, wherein the process of tunneling comprises: (a) encrypting the packets; and (b) encapsulating the encrypted packets into other packets; the VPN terminator in the communication pathway, wherein the VPN server and the VPN terminator are able to establish a VPN connection between them through the shared network, the VPN connection providing part of the communication pathway; and a network services platform in the communication pathway that is located between the PDSN and the VPN server, wherein the network services platform is configured to receive packets exchanged between the wireless terminal and the resource and to manipulate data carried within the packet, and wherein the packets are unencrypted when received at the network services platform within the communication pathway.