Patent ID: 6069947
Filing Date: 2000-05-30
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
A communication network comprising:a call server arranged to administer control of at least a portion of the communication network;a plurality of interconnectable lower-level system entities controllable by the call server and configurable to provide a plurality of circuits that support a flow of data within the communication network, the lower-level system entities being selected from the group consisting of: infrastructure that establishes the physical connection between trunk circuits and virtual channels, and service-orientated equipment including intelligent peripherals and call announcement servers; anda connection broker coupled to the call server and the plurality of lower-level system entities and arranged to relay system configuration messages between the call server and the plurality of lower-level system entities, the connection broker having:a memory-processor combination arranged to store and access, as necessary, protocol converters in response to receipt of system configuration messages from one of the call server and the plurality of lower-level system entities to facilitate and provide intelligible system configuration messages to a respective one of the plurality of lower-level system entities and the call server.