Patent ID: 7990948

Claim:
A system, comprising: two or more Internet Protocol (IP) telephony units configured to be interfaced to a network; and instances of IP-Telephony software stored on the two or more IP telephony units, wherein the two or more IP telephony units, through execution of the instances of the IP-telephony software, in absence of any switches and servers in the network, automatically cooperate to form one or more organizational groups in the network and provide one or more telephony functions to the two or more IP telephony units, and wherein the two or more IP telephony units form one or more virtual rings, as the one or more organizational groups, and deform at least one of the one or more virtual rings, and wherein at least one virtual ring of the one or more virtual rings is configured for use on an application layer that implements a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) over an Internet Protocol (IP), and at least one token associated with the at least one virtual ring is configured to facilitate at least one of reliable packet delivery, data flow control, data redundancy, or support for supplementary services.