Patent ID: 6947752

Claim:
A switch capable of handling call connections between calling devices and called devices on a plurality of trunk lines associated with said switch, said switch comprising: a main processing unit capable of executing call process client applications, wherein each of said call process client applications is associated with one of said call connections; and N call application nodes capable of executing call process server applications, wherein a first call process server application is executed on a first one of said N call application nodes and is associated with a similar second call process server application executed on a second one of said N call application nodes separate from said first call application node, said first and second call process server applications thereby forming a first load sharing group server application, wherein said each call process client application sends a call process service request to said first load sharing group server application and said first load sharing group server application selects one of said first and second call process server applications to perform said call process service request according to a load distribution algorithm.