Patent ID: 8606901

Claim:
An application docking station suitable for use in a communication network, comprising: a processor; and memory storing instructions that when executed cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising: monitoring application server messages exchanged between an application server and a session control layer of a communications network; determining an anomaly in the application server from one of the application server messages; activating an anomaly handler in response to the anomaly in the application server; isolating the application server from the session control layer in response to the anomaly; processing the one of the application server messages by the anomaly handler on behalf of the application server in response to the anomaly; determining, by the anomaly handler, a type of the one of the application server messages; selecting a first message handler, of a plurality of message handlers, in response to the one of the application server messages requiring a call session control function; selecting a second message handler, of the plurality of message handlers, in response to the one of the application server messages being exchanged between the application server and a home subscriber server; passing the one of the application server messages from the anomaly handler to the first message handler for processing in response to requiring the call session control function; and passing the one of the application server messages from the anomaly handler to the second message handler for processing in response to exchange between the application server and a home subscriber server; responsive to detecting an unexpected heartbeat status of the application server: blocking outbound application server messages, generated by the application server and intended for the session control layer; and processing, by the anomaly handler on behalf of the application server, inbound application server messages addressed to the application server.