Patent ID: 7701924

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, by a server located at a customer premises coupled to a local network, an indication from at least one gateway device to initiate a communications session between a dumb terminal coupled to the local network and a remote terminal coupled to an external Internet Protocol (IP) packet switched network, the server comprising a network interface and a controller, the network interface coupled to the local network, the at least one gateway device coupled to the local network and the external IP packet switched network, the dumb terminal comprising a non-IP telephone; generating, by the controller, an abstraction of at least one signaling message received from the dumb terminal by interpreting an intent of the at least one signaling message, the abstraction of the at least one signaling message comprising a description of the at least one signaling message based on the interpreted intent of the at least one signaling message; translating, by the controller, the abstraction of the at least one signaling message; and transmitting, by the server, the translated abstraction of the at least one signaling message to the at least one gateway device for presentation to the remote terminal, thereby establishing the communications session and facilitating a media stream path without the server between the dumb terminal and the remote terminal.