Patent ID: 8184614

Claim:
A telecommunications method, comprising: transmitting a VoIP configuration discover message from a VoIP endpoint to multiple VoIP feature servers to identify features provided, wherein at least one of said VoIP feature servers comprises a telephony feature access server interfacing a private branch exchange to an IP network; receiving at said VoIP endpoint, in response to said VoIP configuration discover message, a configuration offer message from the VoIP feature servers, said configuration offer message identifying features supported by a responding VoIP feature server; transmitting a VoIP configuration request message from the VoIP endpoint over said IP network to one or more VoIP feature servers, the VoIP configuration request message indentifying features desired to be implemented at the VoIP endpoint; receiving at said VoIP endpoint, in a response to said VoIP configuration request message, from said VoIP feature servers, said configuration acknowledge message acknowledging features to be provided by the responding VoIP feature server; accessing a memory by the VoIP endpoint for configuration information corresponding to the supported features responsive to the configuration offer message, wherein the configuration information is not included in the configuration offer message; configuring said VoIP endpoint responsive to said configuration acknowledge message with the configuration information from the memory; and transmitting a feature availability protocol packet message by a newly-added feature server directly to the VoIP endpoint without being requested by the VoIP endpoint, wherein the feature availability protocol packet message indicates feature availability of the newly-added feature server.