Patent ID: 6215783
Filing Date: 2001-04-10
Classification: H04M,H04Q

Abstract:
A telephony system comprising:a packet data backbone network adapted to provide telephony communication between a first node and a second node in a data-network-telephony (DNT) protocol;a dual-protocol interactive voice response (IVR) server at the first node connected to both the packet data backbone and to a first Publicly-Switched Telephony Network (PSTN) and adapted to interact with callers from either network, providing routing intelligence to the network;a first node comprising a first IP router connected to the packet-data backbone network and a first protocol-translation server connected to the first IP router, the first protocol-translation server adapted to translate between a data protocol compatible with the first PSTN and a data protocol compatible with the packet-data backbone network, and connected to both the first PSTN and to the first IP router; anda second node comprising a second IP router connected to the packet-data backbone network and a second protocol-translation server connected to the second IP router, the second protocol-translation server adapted to translate between a data protocol compatible with a second PSTN and a data protocol compatible with the packet-data backbone network, and connected to both the second PSTN and to the second IP router;wherein calls placed in either the first or the second PSTN may be routed through the packet-data backbone network via the IP routers and the protocol-translation servers into the other PSTN.