Patent ID: 7620053

Claim:
A method for routing call signaling messages received by a first session router the method comprising the steps of: building and maintaining a telephony route information base (TRIB) as a result of the participation of the first session router in telephony routing over internet protocol (TRIP), the TRIB residing in the first session router and allowing multiple routes to the same destination; using the TRIB to route the received call signaling messages to a second session router; receiving a signaling message establishing a session between an originating endpoint and a terminating endpoint; responsive to the received signaling message: searching the TRIB for more than one route having a destination field matching the terminating endpoint in the received signaling message; comparing at least one attribute of each matching TRIB route with a field in the received signaling message to determine a degree of match for the attribute, wherein the comparing step further comprises comparing a From: field in the signaling message with a corresponding attribute in each matching TRIB route; sorting the matching TRIB routes by the degree of match, wherein the sorting step further comprises sorting the matching TRIB routes so that the longest match on the From: field is ranked highest; selecting, based on the comparison, the matching TRIB route with the highest degree of match; and forwarding the signaling message to a second session router identified by a next hop attribute in the selected TRIB route.