Systems and methods of routing ip telephony data packet communciations

A system for identifying one or more preferred paths for transmission of digital data packets bearing the media of an Internet protocol (IP) telephony communication that is to be conducted by a telephony device, comprising:

• means for conducting testing to determine the respective quality of each of a plurality of paths that can be used to communicate data packets between the telephony device and one or more elements of a communications network;
• means for evaluating the results of testing conducted by the means for conducting testing to determine the relative quality of each of the plurality of paths;
• and
• means for identifying one or more of the paths as preferred paths based on the evaluation performed by the means for evaluating.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

• conducting testing to determine the respective quality of each of a plurality of paths that can be used to communicate data packets between the telephony device and one or more elements of a communications network;
• evaluating the results of the conducting step to determine the relative quality of each of the plurality of paths;
• and
• identifying one or more of the paths as preferred paths based on the result of the evaluating step.