Patent ID: 8125990

Claim:
A system for routing a call through a network between a first call control element and a second call control element, the system comprising: a plurality of call control elements operatively associated with the network and accessible by user equipment to process and switch calls and to provide call features to calling or called parties; and a delay database operatively coupled with the network to allow queries by network elements including the call control elements, the delay database comprising one or more entries with individual entries including: a near network element identifier identifying one of the call control elements associated with a calling party; a far network element identifier identifying another one of the call control elements associated with a called party; a delay value indicating a measured delay associated with establishing a call through the network from the calling party associated with the call control element identified by the near network element identifier to the called party associated with the call control element identified by the far network element identifier; and a carrier identifier identifying a carrier used to route a call through the network associated with the delay value; wherein a first call control element queries the delay database to obtain at least one delay value associated with a particular call from a calling party user equipment associated with the first call control element to a called party user equipment associated with a second call control element, and wherein the first call control element uses the obtained delay value to process the call.