Patent ID: 7457249

Claim:
A method for effecting a communication between subscribers of an enterprise network, comprising: (a) providing geographically dislocated first and second network regions of an enterprise network, the first and second network regions being in communication with one another through first and second networks and respectively comprising first and second media servers, first and second gateways, and first and second groupings of links connected to the second network, wherein a common electronic address is associated with the second grouping of links; (b) the first network region receiving, from a first subscriber, a request to initiate an at least substantially real-time communication session with a second subscriber; (c) the first network region determining that the first network is currently incapable of supporting the bearer channel for the session; (d) in response to the determining step (c), the first network region transmitting the common electronic address over the second network to the second network region; (e) after the common electronic address is received by the second network region, at least one of the first and second network regions transmitting in band over the second network to the other of the at least one of the first and second network regions a unique identifier; and (f) using the identifier to establish a bearer channel for the communication session over the second network, wherein the user identifier transmitted to the second network region is a first phantom user identifier, wherein a first communication-related data structure is associated with the first telephone number, wherein a second communication-related data structure is associated with an outgoing call from the first gateway and the first phantom user, and wherein a third communication-related data structure is associated with an incoming call to the second gateway and a second phantom user.