Automatic Location (ALI) Service Requests Steering, Connection Sharing and Protocol Translation

An automatic location identification (ALI) steering gateway, comprising:

• a plurality of protocol interfaces for communicating with respective ones of a plurality of ALI gateways each having a different one of a plurality of different Internet Protocol (IP) communication protocols for communicating with a respective one of a plurality of mobile positioning centers, said plurality of protocol interfaces including:
• an inbound ALI interface for connecting each of said plurality of protocol interfaces to said respective one of said plurality of ALI gateways,
• an outbound ALI interface for connecting each of said plurality of protocol interfaces to said plurality of mobile positioning centers;
• and
• an gateway including an XPC selection lookup database, to map said plurality of mobile positioning centers to carriers.

Apparatus for steering automatic location identification (ALI) requests of one type IP protocol to a mobile positioning center of another type IP protocol, comprising:

• means for receiving an ALI request of an inbound ALI interface using a first type Internet Protocol;
• means for converting said ALI request into a second type Internet Protocol different from said first type Internet Protocol;
• and
• means for transmitting said converted ALI request over an outbound ALI interface using said second type Internet Protocol;
• wherein an ALI request of one type Internet Protocol is able to access a mobile positioning center using a different type Internet Protocol.