Patent ID: 8514840

Claim:
A method for forwarding an incoming call from a calling party on a first client to a selected second client of a plurality of second clients in a direct-communication communication network, the method comprising: receiving the incoming call by the first client, the call comprising first property information, the first property information comprising a first communication address for the calling party and a second communication address at which the second clients are associated for identifying any of the second clients as being sought for connection via the incoming call; prior to forwarding the incoming call, the first client checking memory in which information about preceding switching processes is stored to check whether a call with the first communication address of the calling party has previously been relayed to one of the second clients within a predetermined amount of time, upon a determination that one of the second clients previously received a call with the calling party within the predetermined amount of time, the first client forwarding the incoming call to that one of the second clients, and upon a determination that none of the second clients previously had a call from the calling party relayed to the second clients within the predetermined amount of time, the first client sending at least one interrogatory message to the second clients; the second clients receiving the at least one interrogatory message from the first client and responding to the at least one interrogatory message, each of the second clients responding to the at least one interrogatory message by sending a response message to the first client, the response message comprising second property information for the second client and status information for that second client; the first client receiving the response messages and storing the second property information and status information for the second clients; the first client relating the second property information from the received response messages to the first property information of the calling party to select the second client to which to forward the incoming call; the first client selecting one of the second clients for forwarding of the incoming call; and the first client forwarding the incoming call to the selected second client.