System and methods for tunneling media through secure channel

A method comprising:

• receiving, by an edge element during initiation of a call session between a calling endpoint on the first communication network and a remote endpoint on the second communication network, a message to the remote endpoint to check media connectivity in the call session;
• determining, by the edge element, whether media connectivity is available between the calling endpoint and the remote endpoint;
• and
• in response to determining media connectivity is not available between the calling endpoint and the remote endpoint, conducting, by the edge element, the call session between the calling endpoint and the remote endpoint using tunneling of multiplexed media streams through a selected port of the edge element, wherein each of the multiplexed media streams are identified by a unique stream identifier.

A system comprising:

• a first communication network;
• a second communication network;
• a first edge element coupled with the first communication network;
• and
• a second edge element coupled with the second communication network and the first edge element, the second edge element comprising a processor and a memory, the memory comprising a set of instruction stored therein which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to:
• receive, during initiation of a call session between a calling endpoint on the first communication network and a remote endpoint on the second communication network, a session initiation message from the first edge element including a unique stream identifier, and
• conduct the call session between the calling endpoint and the remote endpoint using tunneling of multiplexed media streams through the selected port of the second edge element, wherein each of the multiplexed media streams are identified by the unique stream identifier.