Patent ID: 7054328

Claim:
A signal transfer point (STP) node within a Signaling System 7 (SS7) telecommunications network serving a particular local switch and further connected to a packet communications network, comprising: a first interface for receiving a SS7 signal from said particular local switch, said SS7 signal having a destination address identifying a destination node within said SS7 telecommunications network; a first routing table for determining routing mechanism within said SS7 telecommunications network; a second routing table for determining routing mechanism within said packet communications network; and a processor for determining whether said destination address associated with said received SS7 signal is specified within said second routing table indicating that a destination node specified by said destination address is routeble over said packet communications network and wherein said second muting table includes Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with said destination address specified in the received SS7 signal; a second interface for communicating packet data with said packet communications network; and an interworking function module connected to said second interface for encapsulating said SS7 signal within a packet and for transmitting said packet using said IP address over said second interface in response to said determination that said destination node is routable over said packet communication network.