Patent ID: 7466710

Claim:
A method of managing a packet voice network that uses ITU Recommendation H.323 and using a virtual entity approach, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: creating and storing a virtual zone object, wherein the virtual zone object represents a virtual zone comprising one or more virtual gateways and one or more associated gatekeepers that are respectively associated with the one or more virtual gateways; receiving user input that specifies a single configuration operation on the virtual zone and one or more parameter values, wherein the user input does not specify both a virtual gateway and its associated gatekeeper; and in response to receiving the user input, automatically issuing one or more configuration instructions to both a virtual gateway of the one or more virtual gateways and its associated gatekeeper, resulting in configuring both the virtual gateway and the associated gatekeeper as specified in the user input; wherein the configuration operation comprises a gatekeeper configuration function that is one of: Configure Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP); Configure Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP); Configure Network Time Protocol (NTP); Configure Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) related parameters; Configure Access List; or Configure Ethernet Interface.