Patent ID: 6958980

Claim:
A method of establishing a call session over a packet-based network, comprising: receiving, in a first switch, a call request over the packet-based network from a first terminal associated with a logical identifier, the call request targeting a second terminal coupled to a second switch; storing, in the first switch, information relating to features of the first terminal, the information associated with the logical identifier; sending, from the first switch, a request over a packet-based trunk to the second switch in response to the call request; sending, from the first switch to the first terminal, a media connection request containing a network address of the second terminal to enable the first terminal to establish a media path with the second terminal over the packet-based network; and the first switch interacting with the first terminal to establish a call session based on the call request, wherein the media connection request from the first switch enables the first terminal to communicate over the media path of the call session with the second terminal without passing through the first and second switches.