METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CACHING LOCATION INFORMATION OF TRANSMITTING MOBILE STATIONS

摘要

A method and apparatus for caching mobile station (110) location information comprising a gateway packet switch node (150) for receiving and transmitting data packets between a plurality of visiting packet switch nodes (130) and at least one communication network (175) and a cache memory (165) located within the gateway packet switch (150) for caching location information received with a data packet from a transmitting mobile station (110). A communication packet, containing information pertaining to the location of a transmitting mobile station (110) is received (230) by the gateway packet switch node (150). The location information is extracted (250) from the received communication packet and cached (260). When an incoming data packet is received (300) by the gateway packet switch node (150), a determination is made (310) as to whether the location information for the destination mobile station (110) is stored within the cache (165). If the location information is stored within the cache (165) the location information is retrieved (340) from the cache (165) and the data packet is routed (350) to the mobile station (110). Otherwise, the location information is retrieved (320) from a home location register (197) and the data packet is routed (330) to the mobile station (110).