Patent ID: 6917619

Claim:
A method for interconnecting a calling party asynchronous transfer mode system having a calling party host and a called party asynchronous transfer mode system having a called party host using an intermediate switching asynchronous transfer mode network and a border node associated with each asynchronous transfer mode system comprising: routing a call from said calling party host to said called party host over the intermediate switching asynchronous transfer mode network based on an intermediate switching ATM network addressing scheme that is recognized by said border nodes and independent of an addressing scheme of said asynchronous transfer mode systems; wherein said routing step comprises: substituting at the border node of the calling party asynchronous transfer mode system in a called party address information element an intermediate switching asynchronous transfer mode network address of the border node of the called party asynchronous transfer mode system for the asynchronous transfer mode system address of the called party host; and routing the call over the intermediate switching asynchronous transfer mode network from the border node of the calling party asynchronous transfer mode system to the border node of the called party asynchronous transfer mode system based on the intermediate switching asynchronous transfer mode network address in the called party address information element.