Patent ID: 8730952

Claim:
A method for controlling a flow of a plurality of call setup signaling messages, comprising: receiving the plurality of call setup signaling messages by a switch in a time division multiplexing based telephone network, where the plurality of call setup signaling messages is destined to an internet protocol based teleconference bridge located on a packet network; and controlling the flow of the plurality of call setup signaling messages by the switch, wherein the controlling comprises: assigning the plurality of call setup signaling messages over a plurality of periods of a time interval, wherein the assigning is based on a capacity limitation of the packet network to simultaneously process the call setup signaling messages; sending only a number of the plurality call setup signaling messages to the internet protocol based teleconference bridge in each of the plurality of periods of the time interval; and placing on hold a remaining number of the plurality of call setup signaling messages that have not yet been sent to the internet protocol based teleconference bridge.