Patent ID: 8484324

Claim:
A method for dial plan debugging in a network comprising a plurality of call agents, the method comprising: receiving, at a Network Management System (NMS), information for a source phone number and a destination phone number and an address of a first call agent, the source phone number corresponding to a source device, and the destination phone number corresponding to a destination device, wherein the first call agent is configured to receive a data packet from the source device; sending a correspondence from the NMS to the first call agent to determine another call agent in a plurality of call agents that the first call agent will forward the data packet; receiving information from the first call agent regarding the other call agent that the first call agent will forward the data packet; determining whether the other call agent is the destination device; upon determining that the other call agent is the destination, sending information from the NMS to the source device to inform the source device of a path of the data packet from the source device to the destination device, wherein sending information from the NMS to the source device regarding the path of the data packet occurs prior to the source device sending the data packet to the first call agent; and upon determining that the other call agent is not the destination device: performing the sending the correspondence to each call agent in the plurality of call agents and receiving information from the respective call agent in the plurality of call agents until one of the call agents indicates that a next call agent is the destination device.