A method is described of automatically locating and connecting a
mobile wireless communications device to a packet-switched network such as
the Internet. An
Internet Protocol (IP) packet from a terminal on the network, destined for
receipt by the
mobile device, is received at a home agent acting as a gateway or
router linking the
packet switched network to a second network, such as LAN, coupled to a
wireless communications network. The home agent transmits an access-request message to an
authentication server. The access-request message includes a destination
IP address associated with the
mobile device found in the IP packet. The
authentication server responsively issues an access-accept message to the home agent if the
mobile device is authorized to receive the IP packet. The access-accept message comprises (a) information uniquely identifying said device, such as the IMSI / ESN number for the device, and (b) information identifying a network to use to locate said device. The home agent issues a message containing the information uniquely identifying the device to a mobile node location
server. The mobile node location server maintains a table mapping IP addresses for a plurality of mobile communication devices to information uniquely identifying the devices. In the event that the mobile node location server does not find an
IP address for the device in the table, the device is paged via the
wireless communications network. In response to the page, the mobile device dials into the
wireless communications network and second network and initiates a connection to the
packet switched network whereby the IP packet is transmitted to the device.