Patent ID: 8750336

Claim:
A method for facilitating communication of multimedia data within a distributed network, comprising: receiving at least one item of multimedia data and an identifier at a first interface of a first multimedia message service center (MMSC), the first MMSC being geographically associated with a sender and the identifier being associated with a recipient, wherein the first MMSC is one of a plurality of distribution sites that form a geographically distributed multimedia processing platform of the distributed network, each of the plurality of distribution sites being assigned to a group of subscribers of the distributed network in a respective geographic region; transmitting the identifier to a look-up server over a second interface of the first MMSC, wherein the look-up server is within the distributed network; receiving a reference to a location of a second MMSC from the look-up server, wherein the second MMSC being geographically associated with the identifier and belonging to the plurality of distribution sites of the distributed network such that the reference is at least one of a domain name and a universal resource locator (URL) of the distribution site for the second MMSC; and transmitting the multimedia data from the first MMSC to the second MMSC based on the reference, wherein the second MMSC is geographically disparate from the first MMSC, and a carrier of the first MMSC differs from a carrier of the second MMSC.