Patent ID: 7532617

Claim:
A signaling protocol application framework for executing a signaling protocol application, comprising: a controller for receiving a descriptor and a request message, wherein the controller parses the request message, and wherein the descriptor defines a plurality of state transitions that occur during an execution of the application; application data, the application data comprising global application data and global application state data required for the execution of the application; a plurality of precondition handlers for examining the application data and for determining if a precondition is met; a plurality of postcondition handlers for examining the application data and for determining if a postcondition is met; and a plurality of transition handlers for receiving and processing request messages, each of the plurality of transition handlers having one or more respective instance variables, wherein the controller examines a state of the application and determines whether the application is at a start of the state, wherein the controller, responsive to determining the application is at the start of the state, evaluates the state to determine if a precondition is specified by the state, and wherein the controller, responsive to determining that the precondition is specified by the state, loads a precondition handler of the plurality of precondition handlers to determine whether the precondition is met.