Patent ID: 8069253

Claim:
A method of establishing an IP link between first and second applications running at respective first and second nodes, the first and second applications being arranged to initiate link establishment over a transport layer by issuing a call to theft respective operating system socket Application Programming Interfaces, the method comprising: 1) at said second node, intercepting a socket call to bind a socket, generated by said second application, redirecting the socket call to a SIP-based application resident at said second node, and preparing the SIP-based application to receive a SIP session establishment request from remote nodes; 2) upon receipt of the redirected socket call at the SIP-based application of said second node, publishing a globally routable Uniform Resource Identifier using a presence service, the globally routable Uniform Resource Identifier being mapped to the bound socket at said second node; 3) at said first node, intercepting a socket call generated by said first application and redirecting the socket call to a SIP-based application resident at said first node; and 4) initiating an IP session with said second node using the SIP protocol and said globally routable Uniform Resource Identifier.