System and method for providing alternate routing in a network
AssigneeLevel 3 Communications, LLC
InventorsHarry Mussman, James O'Brien, Eric Sporel, Robert Israel, Michael Baj
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems are described for performing alternate routing of communications in a network. The system initiates a communication from an origination endpoint in a packet-switched network, such as a VOIP network, to a destination endpoint, and determining, according to selection criteria, whether to route the communication to the destination endpoint using at least a second circuit-switched network, such as the PSTN.
Claims20
A computerized method for performing alternate routing of communications in a network, the method comprising:
- initiating a communication from an origination endpoint in a packet-switched network to a destination endpoint, wherein the origination endpoint and the destination endpoint are located at different sites, and are associated with a private dialing plan (PDP) number identified in the communication;
- appending to the PDP number a customer-specific identifier (CSID) that uniquely identifies one of the sites;
- determining, according to selection criteria, whether to route the communication to the destination endpoint using at least a second circuit-switched network;
- and
- routing the communication to the destination endpoint via the second circuit-switched network based on the CSID.
A computerized method for establishing a telephonic call from an origination endpoint to a destination endpoint, the computerized method comprising:
- receiving a destination telephone number at a gatekeeper in a packet-switched network, the destination telephone number being in a private dialing plan (PDP) format associated with a site corresponding to the destination endpoint;
- determining whether to route the telephonic call using the packet-switched network or a circuit-switched network based on network selection criteria;
- appending a site identifier to the PDP number that identifies the site of the destination telephone endpoint;
- and
- based on the site identifier, establishing a connection to the destination endpoint over the circuit-switched network using the destination telephone number.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.