Patent ID: 7596150

Claim:
A method for consolidating media signaling to facilitate Internet Protocol (IP) telephony, comprising: receiving a first message exchange in a first protocol from a first endpoint to open a first unidirectional media connection by negotiating a media path with a second endpoint; determining to consolidate the first message exchange with additional message exchanges received from the first endpoint in the first protocol, wherein determining to consolidate the first message exchange with the additional message exchanges comprises; activating a timer to begin consolidation, wherein the timer expires according to a time period; and determining whether the timer expires; reactivating the timer to consolidate additional message exchanges received from the first endpoint if the timer expires and if additional message exchanges can be consolidated; receiving a second message exchange in the first protocol from the first endpoint to open a second unidirectional media connection; consolidating information derived from the first message exchange and the second message exchange within the time period; initiating a first message exchange in a second protocol to the second endpoint according to the information consolidated from the first and second message exchanges in the first protocol, wherein the first message exchange in the second protocol opens a bidirectional media connection; facilitating one or more unidirectional media flows over the media path between the first and second endpoints according to a message exchange in the first protocol if the first and second message exchanges in the first protocol are not consolidated within the time period; and facilitating one or more bidirectional media flows over the media path between the first and second endpoints according to the first and second message exchanges in the first protocol and the first message exchange in the second protocol if the first and second message exchanges in the first protocol are consolidated.