Patent ID: 6829232
Filing Date: 2004-12-07
Classification: H04L,H04M,H04Q

Abstract:
A communication method, at an IP network subscriber's terminals management server of a network including:a plurality of telephone networks each having a plurality of switching systems to which telephone network subscriber's terminals are connected; an internet protocol (IP) network; a plurality of gateways connected to the plurality of telephone networks and the IP network, for IP encapsulating voice and for translating IP encapsulated voice to voice; a plurality of IP network subscriber's terminals connected to the IP network; a plurality of gateway management servers connected to the IP network, for managing the plurality of gateways; and the IP network subscriber's terminals management server connected to the IP network, for managing the plurality of IP network subscriber's terminals, the method comprising the steps of: receiving an admission request from one of said IP network subscriber's terminals, the admission request including a destination number corresponding to any of the plurality of telephone network subscriber's terminals from any of the plurality of IP network subscriber's terminals; judging the kind of the destination number indicated in the admission request; retrieving an address of one of said gateways and said gateway management servers by referring to a table according to the destination number, said table indicating an address of one of the plurality of gateways to be communicated in order to originate a call from the IP network subscriber terminal to the destination number if the destination number is of a first kind, and indicating a multicast address for communicating a group of gateway management servers determined depending on the destination number in order to interrogate an address of a gateway to be communicated later if the destination number is of a second kind; said table being stored in the subscriber's terminals management server, and comprising a plurality of entries each indicating a destination terminal number, class of the destination terminal number and an IP address of one of the gateways or a multicast address determined in accordance with the class, notifying the IP network subscriber's terminal of the address of a gateway corresponding to the destination number when the destination number received is of the first kind; multicasting an interrogation request to a group of gateway management servers according to the multicast address corresponding to the destination number when the destination number received is of the second kind; and notifying the IP network subscriber's terminal of the address of one of the gateway management servers when a response to the interrogation request is received from the gateway management server.