Patent ID: 6580791
Filing Date: 2003-06-17
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
A communications system comprising:a plurality of switching elements, wherein a switching element within the plurality of switching elements has a plurality of modes of operation including: a first mode of operation in which the switching element receives a call for routing; a second mode of operation, responsive to receiving the call, in which the switching element determines whether data is needed to route the call; a third mode of operation, responsive to determining that data is needed to route the call, in which the switching element searches a local data structure for the data; a fourth mode of operation, responsive to an absence of the data needed to route the call being located in the local data structure, in which the switching element requests the data needed to route the call; and a fifth mode of operation, responsive to the switching element receiving the data needed to route the call, in which the switching element stores the data needed to route the call in the local data structure; and a server computer associated with a global data structure and configured to: receive the request from the switching element, retrieve the data needed to route the call from the global data structure in response to receiving the request, transmit the data needed to route the call to the switching element, associate the data needed to route the call in the global data structure with the switching element, and transmit updates to the data needed to route the call in the global data structure to the switching element, wherein, when associating the data needed to route the call in the global data structure with the switching element, the server computer is configured to: store the data needed to route the call and information identifying the switching element in a database.