System and method for providing a plurality of multi-media services using a number of media servers to form a preliminary interactive communication relationship with a calling communication device

A method of processing multi-media service requests received at a provider system to form a multi-media communication path between a first communication device and a second communication device of a plurality of communication devices, comprising:

• receiving at least a first request message for a multi-media service at a call control element located on the provider system from the first communication device;
• processing the first request message at the call control element to generate a second request message for the multi-media service including predetermined attributes of the first request message;
• forwarding the second request message to a service broker;
• receiving and processing a first redirect message from the service broker, wherein the first redirect message includes predetermined attributes of the second request message at the call control element for generating a third request message including predetermined attributes of the first redirect message;
• forwarding the third request message to an application server, wherein the application server is for generating a second redirect message, wherein the second redirect message includes a first contact header having address-related information associated with a primary media server located on the provider system and a second contact header having address-related information associated with a secondary media server located on the provider system;
• receiving and processing the second redirect message at the call control element to generate a fourth request message including a Content-Type header having a multipart/mixed media type, wherein the fourth request message further includes a first message body portion including session description protocol associated with the first request message and a second message body portion including service related parameters to establish an interactive session with a predetermined caller;
• and
• querying the secondary media server for determining whether the secondary media server includes resources for processing the fourth request message if it is determined that the primary media server includes insufficient resources for processing the fourth request message.

A system for processing multi-media service requests received at a provider system to form a multi-media communication path between a first communication device and a second communication device of a plurality of communication devices, comprising:

• a call control element located on the provider system for receiving a first request message for a multi-media service from the first communication device, wherein the call control element processes the first request message at the call control element to generate a second request message for the multi-media service including predetermined attributes of the first request message, wherein the call control element forwards the second request message to a service broker, wherein the call control element receives and processes a first redirect message from the service broker, wherein the first redirect message includes predetermined attributes of the second request message at the call control element for generating a third request message including predetermined attributes of the first redirect message, wherein the call control element forwards the third request message to an application server, wherein the application server is for generating a second redirect message, wherein the second redirect message includes a first contact header having address-related information associated with a primary media server located on the provider system and a second contact header having address-related information associated with a secondary media server located on the provider system, wherein the call control element receives and processes the second redirect message at the call control element to generate a fourth request message including a Content-Type header having a multipart/mixed media type, wherein the fourth request message further includes a first message body portion including session description protocol associated with the first request message and a second message body portion including service related parameters to establish an interactive session with a predetermined caller, wherein the call control element forwards the fourth request message to the primary media server if it is determined that the primary media server includes resources for processing the fourth request message and processes the fourth request message at the primary media server to form an interactive communication path between the primary media server and the first communication device.