Patent ID: 8799391

Claim:
A method for routing Diameter messages, the method comprising: at a Diameter signaling router (DSR) comprising a plurality of Diameter message processors: receiving, by a first of the plurality of Diameter message processors and from a first Diameter node, a Diameter message, wherein the Diameter message is received via a first Diameter connection; determining, by the first Diameter message processor, a next-hop Diameter node for the Diameter message; communicating, by the first Diameter message processor and to a second of the plurality of Diameter message processors, the Diameter message; and communicating, by the second Diameter message processor and to the next-hop Diameter node, the Diameter message, wherein the Diameter message is communicated via a second Diameter connection, wherein the second Diameter message processor is configured to communicate the Diameter message based on the determination made by the first Diameter message processor and wherein at least one of the first and second of the plurality of Diameter message processors comprises one of: a distinct message processing module of a distributed computing platform; a computing blade in a blade-based distributed computing platform; a processing core element associated with a single or multi-core computing device; and a virtual node instantiated on a single physical message processing/computing device.