METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR ROUTING MESSAGES ASSOCIATED WITH PORTED SUBSCRIBERS IN A MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

摘要

A porting control routing (PCR) node (302) is adapted to efficiently route signaling messages associated with a mobile subscriber that has been either ported into or out of a service provider's wireless communication network. The PCR node (302) includes both range- and exception based routing rule databases (348 and 346). These database increases flexibility in allocating mobile identification numbers among multiple mobile service nodes. Furthermore, the association of a ported status indicator and related routing information with entries in the exception based database allows the PCR node (302) to more efficiently manage a service provider's mobile service resources.