Patent ID: 7227837

Claim:
An end office building for interaction with a virtual trunking system including a packet switched data network comprising a plurality of data network switches, and at least one control and signaling interworking function complex, the end office building comprising: a plurality of T-IWFs, each T-IWF converting voice to a format compatible with the data network and converting from the data network format to voice, each T-IWF being capable of dynamically establishing end-to-end connections to another T-IWF device, each T-IWF having a plurality of processors with at least one processor being configured to compensate for a failed processor, at least one T-IWF being configured to absorb at least a portion of a failed T-IWFs workload; and a central office switch that distributes calls among the plurality of T-IWFs in a load sharing manner, wherein the at least one processor that compensates for the failed processor is configured to cooperate with the at least one T-IWF absorbing at least a portion of the failed T-IWFs workload, enabling the end office building to survive a simplex failure.