Patent ID: 7924820

Claim:
A system for providing communication between a plurality of devices connected to a distributed computer network, each device being associated with a unique multi-digit telephone number in a series of consecutive multi-digit telephone numbers, said system comprising: a plurality of gateways, each gateway (1) providing connection to the network for at least one of said devices and (2) being assigned a unique network address; and a directory having a total number of locations equal to the number of possible multi-digit telephone numbers in said series, each location being uniquely identified by a corresponding directory address, each said directory address being assigned uniquely to one of said multi-digit telephone numbers by including into the respective directory address a numerical value dependent on the respective multi digit telephone number; wherein each location within the directory includes a network address for the gateway associated with the respective multi-digit telephone number and wherein said directory receives a query (1) from a gateway providing connection to a first device associated with a first multi-digit telephone number (2) for the network address of a second gateway providing connection to a second device associated with a second multi-digit telephone number, said query including said first multi-digit telephone number and said directory returns the network address of the gateway providing connection to said second device.