Web gateway multi-carrier support

Abstract

The present invention provides multi-carrier support in a wireless Internet gateway (WIG) that allows the WIG to send messages to any number of ‘peer’ gateways on the Internet in a conveniently reconfigurable manner. The disclosed embodiments include a ‘Message Distribution Center’ (MDC), through which short messages can be routed to the gateways of other wireless carriers based on carrier formats stored in an abstracted carrier format table. The conventional technique of separate classes written for each carrier is replaced by entries in a look-up table format, to provide a more easily adaptable wireless gateway. Thus, occasional updates of the carrier format table need only be updated, rather than the wireless Internet gateway program, reducing down time for updates, reducing the complexity of updates, and improving the reliability of a wireless Internet gateway in the face of changes for one or more carriers in a wireless network.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of routing a message between different carrier networks, comprising:
 receiving, at a physical message distribution center, an incoming text message from a wireless device of a first carrier network;   resolving destination carrier information from a destination address in said incoming text message;   retrieving destination carrier message format information from a carrier message format table comprising carrier specific format information for each possible destination carrier;   routing said received message to an external destination carrier gateway selected based on carrier specific information maintained in said carrier message format table; and   updating said carrier message format table to include an additional possible destination carrier.   
     
     
         2 . The method of routing a message between different carrier networks according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 generating a peer destination class based on said carrier specific information maintained in said carrier message format table.   
     
     
         3 . The method of routing a message between different carrier networks according to  claim 1 , wherein:
 said carrier message format table is dynamically updateable.   
     
     
         4 . The method of routing a message between different carrier networks according to  claim 1 , wherein said carrier message format table comprises:
 a universal resource locator (URL) of a relevant destination carrier;   form field information; and   a communication protocol of said relevant destination carrier.   
     
     
         5 . The method of routing a message between different carrier networks according to  claim 1 , wherein:
 said text message is a short messaging system (SMS) text message.   
     
     
         6 . A method of routing a message between different carrier networks, comprising:
 receiving, at a physical message distribution center, an incoming text message from a wireless device of a first carrier network;   resolving destination carrier information from a destination address in said incoming text message;   retrieving destination carrier message format information from a carrier message format table comprising carrier specific format information for each possible destination carrier;   routing said received message to an external destination carrier gateway selected based on carrier specific information maintained in said carrier message format table; and   updating said carrier message format table to revise said carrier specific information maintained in said carrier message format table.   
     
     
         7 . The method of routing a message between different carrier networks according to  claim 6 , further comprising:
 generating a peer destination class based on said carrier specific information maintained in said carrier message format table.   
     
     
         8 . The method of routing a message between different carrier networks according to  claim 6 , wherein:
 said carrier message format table is dynamically updateable.   
     
     
         9 . The method of routing a message between different carrier networks according to  claim 6 , wherein said carrier message format table comprises:
 a universal resource locator (URL) of a relevant destination carrier;   form field information; and   a communication protocol of said external destination carrier gateway.   
     
     
         10 . The method of routing a message between different carrier networks according to  claim 6 , wherein:
 said text message is a short messaging system (SMS) text message.   
     
     
         11 . A method of routing a message between different carrier networks, comprising:
 extracting, from an incoming text message at a physical message distribution center, a destination address for said incoming message;   accessing a carrier format table associating a plurality of different carriers serviced by said physical message distribution center gateway and network types and protocols of particular ones of said plurality of different carriers, to determine a physical destination carrier gateway of said plurality of different carriers that is associated with said destination address; and   routing said incoming text message to said physical destination carrier gateway in accordance with information regarding said physical destination carrier gateway maintained in said carrier format table, said physical destination carrier gateway being selected for each incoming text message based on carrier specific information maintained in said carrier message format table.   
     
     
         12 . The method of routing a message between different carrier networks according to  claim 11 , wherein:
 said text message is a short messaging system (SMS) text message.   
     
     
         13 . The method of routing a message between different carrier networks according to  claim 11 , further comprising:
 generating a peer destination class based on information retrieved from said carrier format table.   
     
     
         14 . The method of routing a message between different carrier networks according to  claim 11 , wherein:
 said carrier format table is dynamically updateable.   
     
     
         15 . The method of routing a message between different carrier networks according to  claim 11 , wherein said carrier message format table comprises:
 a universal resource locator (URL) of a relevant destination carrier;   form field information; and   a communication protocol of said determined physical destination carrier gateway.