Patent ID: 6912590

Claim:
A method of operating a telecommunications platform, the method comprising: using a cluster of processors to perform collectively a platform processing function, the plural processors of the cluster having Internet Protocol (IP) capabilities and respective plural IP interfaces; using a same IP address for each of the plural processors of the cluster; distributing an Internet Protocol (IP) handling function throughout the cluster with Internet Protocol (IP) whereby IP frames received from outside the platform on any of the plural IP interfaces and addressed to the same IP address are forwarded to a correct one of the plural processors executing an IP software application; passing IP frames incoming to the platform to a router regardless of which of the plural IP interfaces receives the frames, the router being hosted by one of the plural processors of the cluster; using the router to route the IP frames to an active socket central part; determining at the active socket central part that the IP frames incoming to the platform are destined to the one of the plural processors of the cluster executing the internet protocol (IP) software application; forwarding the IP frames to a socket distributed part hosted by the one of the plural processors of the cluster executing the internet protocol (IP) software application; receiving the IP frames at the internet protocol (IP) software application from the socket distributed part.