Patent ID: 7747672

Claim:
A method for re-establishing an IP protocol call signaling channel, comprising: establishing a first call signaling channel between a first communication endpoint and a first gatekeeper, wherein said first call signaling channel provides a first set of call signaling feature with respect to a first bearer channel; in response to losing said established first call signaling channel, sending a keep alive message to a second gatekeeper; if no response to the keep alive message is received, determining if a registration rejection message is received; if a registration rejection message is received, restarting the registration process; if no registration rejection message is received, sending a keep alive message to a next gatekeeper; and in response to receiving a registration confirmation message from said second gatekeeper in reply to said keep alive message, establishing a second call signaling channel with said second gatekeeper without restarting registration of the first communication endpoint, wherein said second call signaling channel provides said second set of signaling features with respect to said first bearer channel and effectively re-establishes said first call signaling channel.