Patent ID: 7554974

Claim:
A method for performing stateful signaling transactions in a distributed processing environment, the method comprising: (a) receiving a first signaling message; (b) forwarding the first signaling message to a first stateful processing module of a plurality of stateful processing modules located in the same node; (c) at the first stateful processing module: (i) generating a stateful transaction query message based on the first signaling message; (ii) inserting an identifier in the stateful transaction query message for identifying the first stateful processing module; and (iii) forwarding the stateful transaction query message to a destination; and (d) receiving a response to the stateful transaction query message, the response including the identifier; and (e) using the identifier to distribute the response to the first stateful processing module that originated the stateful transaction query message from among the plurality f stateful processing modules located in the same node; and wherein steps (a)-(e) are performed at a signal transfer point (STP).