Patent ID: 8599787

Claim:
A method for routing a packet flow in a communication session, comprising: facilitating a communication session between a first endpoint and a second endpoint; receiving a plurality of path offers for one or more packet flows in one or more packets at an application server of a home network, the plurality of path offers sent by the first endpoint, the plurality of path offers comprising an optimized path offer and a default path offer, the optimized path offer comprising an offer to use an optimized path for the one or more packet flows passing through a transient anchor of a visited network and bypassing a permanent anchor, the default path offer comprising an offer to use a default path for the one or more packet flows passing through the permanent anchor; determining, by the application server of the home network, whether the one or more packet flows between the first endpoint and the second endpoint are to be routed along the optimized path; removing, by the application server of the home network, the default path offer from the one or more packets if the one or more packet flows are to be routed along the optimized path; removing, by the application server of the home network, the optimized path offer from the one or more packets if the one or more packet flows are not to be routed along the optimized path; forwarding the remaining path offer for the one or more packet flows in the one or more packets from the home network to the second endpoint; and initiating, by a policy server of the visited network, transmission of one or more policy rules to the transient anchor if the one or more packet flows are to be routed along the optimized path, the one or more policy rules comprising one or more usage tracking rules specifying how to track usage of the visited network by the first endpoint.