System and method for non-ims application service access over ip multimedia subsystem

A services gateway for connecting to an internet protocol multimedia subsystem, the services gateway comprising:

• a plurality of input and output ports that connect to proxy and serving call session control functions of an internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) and a plurality of non-IMS application services servers;
• an extractor that is configured to extract a non-SIP message from a SIP message, the non-SIP message originating from a subscriber and encapsulated into the SIP message by a user agent at the subscriber before being routed via the IMS to the services gateway, the non-SIP message being forwarded by the services gateway to one of the plurality of non-IMS application services servers;
• and
• an encapsulator that is configured to encapsulate a non-SIP message into a SIP message, the non-SIP message originating from one of the plurality of non-IMS application services servers, the SIP message being routed by the services gateway to an appropriate subscriber via the IMS.

A method for connecting a subscriber to an application service via an internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS), the method comprising:

• receiving an encapsulated message from a subscriber via an internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS), the encapsulated message intended for a non-IMS application service and comprising a non-SIP message within a SIP message;
• extracting the non-SIP message from the SIP message to obtain an extracted message;
• and
• forwarding the extracted message to the intended non-IMS application service.