Patent ID: 7774402

Claim:
A method for switching financial transactions using a gateway situated at an edge of a network, the method comprising: receiving a transaction at the gateway; determining application level content for the transaction; determining one or more transaction processors that can process the application level content for the transaction; determining dynamic context information for a transport environment used to route the transaction from the gateway to the one or more transaction processors, the dynamic context information for the transport environment including the substantially real time ability of one or more networks to route the transaction to the one or more transaction processors; retrieving application level rules specified by the one or more transaction processors from a rules database, the application level rules specifying application level criteria for transactions that are to be processed, at the application level, at the gateway instead of the one or more transaction processors; selecting a transaction processor in the one or more transaction processors using a selected network in the one or more networks, the selection based on the dynamic context information, the application level content of the transaction, and the application level rules; switching the transaction to the selected transaction processor if the application level rules for the selected transaction processor do not indicate the transaction should be processed, at the application level, at the gateway; and processing the transaction, at the application level, at the gateway if the application level rules for the selected transaction processor indicates the transaction should be processed, at the application level, at the gateway.