Patent ID: 8369502

Claim:
A communications system including a plurality of communication terminals, each connected to a network, the communications system comprising: an exchange, connected to the network, which performs call connection processing for a communication terminal; a presence server, connected to the network, which maintains presence information that includes a priority level and indicates a presence status set to each communication terminal, wherein when an incoming call to the communication terminal is performed, the exchange instructs the presence server to obtain control information, and in response to the instructions from the exchange, the presence server extracts and compares receiver-priority action which is predefined for a case that the priority level of the presence information corresponding to the receiver side communication terminal is higher than that of the caller side communication terminal, and caller-priority action which is predefined for a case that the priority level of the presence information corresponding to the caller side communication terminal is higher than or equal to that of the receiver side communication terminal, depending on the priority levels of the presence information corresponding to respective communication terminals concerned for the call being processed, and the exchange performs different call connection processing depending on the receiver-priority action and the caller-priority action obtained by the presence server; and a database, connected to the presence server and stores the presence information which is defined for each communication terminal and indicates a plurality of presence statuses set to each communication terminal, each presence status is associated with a priority level which is a numerical value converted from the presence status corresponding to the presence information, the receiver-priority action that is performed to control the exchange in the case that the priority level of the presence information corresponding to the receiver side communication terminal is higher than that of the caller side communication terminal, and the caller-priority action that is performed to control the exchange in the case that the priority level of the presence information corresponding to the caller side communication terminal is higher than or equal to that of the receiver side communication terminal, wherein the presence server reads respective priority levels of the presence information corresponding to each communication terminal concerned for the call from the database in accordance with current presence status of each communication terminal, and extracts, from the database, the receiver-priority action and the caller-priority action depending on the priority levels having been read.