A technique for operating a mobile station as wireless local-area network [WLAN] gateway. The mobile station is provided with a gateway application to control the following operations: activating (3-0) the WLAN means as a WLAN base station capable of communicating with at least one WLAN terminal over a WLAN network; creating a network identifier (3-2, 3-4) for the WLAN base station; assigning (3-8, 3-10) an internet protocol address for the at least one WLAN terminal; resolving domain name service [DNS] queries (3-12 . . . 3-18) in cooperation with an external DNS service system; assigning at least one port number for each protocol supported by the gateway application; and tunneling internet traffic (3-30 . . . 3-36) between the at least one WLAN terminal and an internet host over the broadband connection.

Communications systems and methods with an evolved packet-switched core network architecture to enable voice services on second- and third- generation wireless access networks. The systems and methods permit unmodified 2G and 3G mobile devices to conduct voice calls using conventional circuit-switched user-plane and control-plane protocols at the air interface while the voice calls are switched at the back-end using a packet-switched core network. The system may include a translation module at a controller component that is configured to provide both user-plane and control-plane translation functions between an unmodified 2G/3G mobile device that utilizes circuit-switched protocols for a voice call and the packet-switched core network that utilizes packet-switched protocols to switch the voice call.

A technique for operating a mobile station as wireless local-area network [WLAN] gateway. The mobile station is provided with a gateway application to control the following operations: activating (3-0) the WLAN means as a WLAN base station capable of communicating with at least one WLAN terminal over a WLAN network; creating a network identifier (3-2, 3-4) for the WLAN base station; assigning (3-8, 3-10) an internet protocol address for the at least one WLAN terminal; resolving domain name service [DNS] queries (3-12 . . . 3-18) in cooperation with an external DNS service system; assigning at least one port number for each protocol supported by the gateway application; and tunneling internet traffic (3-30 . . . 3-36) between the at least one WLAN terminal and an internet host over the broadband connection.

One example mobile station includes a transceiver; a wireless local area network (WLAN) circuit; at least one processor; and one or more memories coupled to the at least one processor and storing programming instructions for execution by the at least one processor to cause the mobile station to: establish and maintain a broadband connection with a mobile communication network in response to a successful authentication of the mobile station; activate the WLAN circuit as a WLAN base station capable of communicating with at least one WLAN terminal over a WLAN network; tunnel internet traffic between the at least one WLAN terminal and an internet host over the broadband connection; and deactivate the WLAN circuit in response to a detected absence of WLAN terminal activity for a period of time.

A technique for operating a mobile station as wireless local-area network [WLAN] gateway. The mobile station is provided with a gateway application to control the following operations: activating (3-0) the WLAN means as a WLAN base station capable of communicating with at least one WLAN terminal over a WLAN network; creating a network identifier (3-2, 3-4) for the WLAN base station; assigning (3-8, 3-10) an intemet protocol address for the at least one WLAN terminal; resolving domain name service [DNS] queries (3-12 . . . 3-18) in cooperation with an external DNS service system; assigning at least one port number for each protocol supported by the gateway application; and tunneling intemet traffic (3-30 . . . 3-36) between the at least one WLAN terminal and an intemet host over the broadband connection.

Communications systems and methods with an evolved packet-switched core network architecture to enable voice services on second- and third-generation wireless access networks. The systems and methods permit unmodified 2G and 3G mobile devices to conduct voice calls using conventional circuit-switched user-plane and control-plane protocols at the air interface while the voice calls are switched at the back-end using a packet-switched core network. The system may include a translation module at a controller component that is configured to provide both user-plane and control-plane translation functions between an unmodified 2G/3G mobile device that utilizes circuit-switched protocols for a voice call and the packet-switched core network that utilizes packet-switched protocols to switch the voice call.