Patent ID: 6498791
Filing Date: 2002-12-24
Classification: H04L,H04M,H04Q

Abstract:
A headless method of deploying a communication system, wherein the system has a plurality of hardware resources including an interface for coupling to a wide area communication network comprising a plurality of network resources, at least a first packet bus for coupling to one or more packet-based devices and adapted for transferring packetized data to and from the system, at least a first time division multiplex (TDM) bus coupled to one or more telephony devices and adapted to be selectively coupled to the first packet bus and the wide area communication network, and a processor,method comprising the steps of: providing a deployment physical medium, wherein the deployment physical medium includes configuration data and software for operating the system to provide voice and packet-based communications; inserting the deployment physical medium into the system; detecting the presence of the deployment physical medium in the system; determining if the deployment physical medium is compatible with the hardware resources of the system; if the deployment physical medium is compatible with the hardware resources of the system, providing configuration data and software into data storage resources of the system based on the configuration data and software included on the deployment physical medium; wherein the configuration data and software included on the deployment physical medium are deployed in the system in a headless manner without a monitor being coupled to the system; wherein, after deployment of the configuration data and software in the system, the system is operable such that the processor is adapted to selectively control voice communications from the one or more telephony devices over the first TDM bus and packet-based communications over the first packet bus, wherein voice communications that stay in a circuit-switched form in the system occur over one or more of the TDM buses and the wide area communications network, and wherein packet-based communications are selectively coupled to the wide area communication network via the TDM buses.