Methods and Systems for Aggregating Presence Information to Provide a Simplified Unified Presence

A communications server for providing simplified presence for a user, the user having a plurality of associated communication devices, each communication device enabling at least one communication service class, the communications server comprising:

• a network interface for connecting the server to an IP network;
• a memory storing a user data entry associating the user with each of the plurality of communication devices, and storing a virtual device definition in association with the user;
• a processor;
• and
• a presence manager executable by the processor and configured to
• receive presence information from at least two of the plurality of communication devices,
• aggregate the received presence information, the aggregated presence information indicating the service classes available from the aggregated at least two communication devices based on the received presence information,
• generate a virtual device presence document containing the aggregated presence information, and
• provide the virtual device presence document to a presence server as presence information associated with the user.