Method and apparatus for centralized maintenance system within a distributed telecommunications architecture

A method of centrally maintaining a telecommunications system having a network services processor (NSP) for handling telecommunications in conformance with a predefined signaling system and for distributing processing applications including call handling and routing to a plurality of resources, comprising the steps of:

• distributing processing applications from the NSP to a plurality of packet managers (PMs) for accessing, processing, and distributing packetized call data over a packet network;
• distributing processing tasks (MCTs) from the NSF to a plurality of media control platforms (MCPs) for accessing, processing, and distributing over a plurality of media platforms;
• interconnecting the plurality of resources including the PMs and the MCPs to the NSF via a corresponding plurality of interconnect controllers (ICCs), wherein the processing applications and tasks are handled by the plurality of resources by concurrent and decentralized processing;
• monitoring the plurality of resources by the ICCs via a centralized messaging protocol;
• and
• determining resource failures by processing responses to the centralized messaging protocol from each of the plurality of resources.

A telecommunications system, comprising:

• a network services processor (NSP) to coordinate system operations and to distribute processing tasks including call handling and routing tasks;
• a plurality of resources receptive to receiving the distributed processing tasks and the coordination, the plurality of resources includes a plurality of packet managers (PMs) to access and process packetized call data over a packet network and a plurality of media control platforms (MCPs) to access and process application tasks (MCTs) transmitted from the NSP;
• and
• a plurality of interconnect controllers (ICCs) connected between the NSP and the plurality of resources, each ICC being operable to receive and transmit messaging between said plurality of resources and the NSP, and among the plurality of resources, the ICC monitors status of the plurality of resources by sending a centralized message and determining resource failures by processing responses to said centralized message from each of said plurality of resources.