Patent ID: 8363637

Claim:
A method of providing telecommunication services from a telecommunications platform having a distributed architecture in which a single interface to a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) through a single component can be exploited by other components in the telecommunications platform, the method comprising the steps of: configuring a signal gateway to include a signaling interface to the PSTN and an Internet Protocol (IP) interface to an IP network; configuring a telephony protocol server (TPS) to include a signaling interface to the PSTN and an IP interface to the IP network, wherein the TPS includes a communications protocol stack for interfacing to the PSTN and is operable to terminate communications directed to it from a user of the PSTN; installing a telephony protocol client (TPC) within at least one additional component of the telecommunications platform, the at least one additional component including an IP interface to the IP network and excluding an interface to the PSTN, the TPC including a portable application program interface (API) for interfacing to the communications protocol stack; and establishing communications between the TPS and the TPC over the IP network in such a way that the portable API enables the additional component to interface to the PSTN utilizing the communications protocol stack of the TPS, and the at least one additional component and the TPS sharing a single Destination Point Code (DPC) on the PSTN.