Methods, systems, and computer program products for providing wireless-fidelity (WI-FI) gateway visitor location register (VLR) functionality

A method for establishing a communication to a roaming subscriber in a Wireless-Fidelity (Wi-Fi) network, the method comprising:

• at a home location register (HLR) associated with a cellular network:
• (a) receiving registration information from a Wi-Fi gateway visitor location register (VLR) providing VLR functions for at least one access point in the Wi-Fi network, the VLR functions including providing Wi-Fi reachability information for sending media packets to a subscriber being serviced by the at least one access point in the Wi-Fi network;
• (b) receiving a request from a first network for reachability information for the subscriber;
• (c) querying the Wi-Fi gateway VLR for routing information for the subscriber;
• (d) obtaining the routing information;
• and
• (e) providing the routing information to the first network.

A Wireless-Fidelity (Wi-Fi) gateway visitor location register (VLR) for providing Wi-Fi gateway VLR functionality for at least one access point in a Wi-Fi network, the Wi-Fi gateway VLR comprising:

• (a) a communications module for sending and receiving signaling messages and for receiving a registration request from a subscriber located in a service area of an access point in a Wi-Fi network;
• (b) an authentication function for authenticating the subscriber with a home location register (HLR) associated with a cellular network and receiving information associated with the subscriber from the HLR;
• and
• (c) a Wi-Fi gateway VLR function for maintaining the information associated with the subscriber and for maintaining Wi-Fi reachability information for sending media packets to the subscriber in the Wi-Fi network.

A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions embodied in a computer-readable medium for performing steps comprising:

• (a) providing a Wi-Fi gateway VLR for performing VLR functions for at least one access point in a Wi-Fi network, wherein performing VLR functions includes:
• (i) receiving a registration request from a subscriber located in a service area of an access point in the Wi-Fi network;
• (ii) authenticating the subscriber with a home location register (HLR) associated with the cellular network;
• (iii) receiving information associated with the subscriber from the HLR;
• (iv) storing the information associated with the subscriber in the Wi-Fi gateway VLR;
• and
• (v) maintaining, in the Wi-Fi gateway VLR, Wi-Fi reachability information for sending media packets to the subscriber in the Wi-Fi network.

A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions embodied in a computer-readable medium for performing steps comprising:

• at a home location register (HLR) associated with a cellular network:
• (a) receiving registration information from a Wi-Fi gateway visitor location register (VLR) providing VLR functions for at least one access point in the Wi-Fi network, the VLR functions include providing Wi-Fi reachability information for sending media packets to a subscriber being serviced by the at least one access point in a Wi-Fi network;
• (b) receiving a request from a first network for reachability information for the subscriber;
• (c) querying the Wi-Fi gateway VLR for routing information for the subscriber;
• (d) obtaining the routing information;
• and
• (e) providing the routing information to the first network.