Patent ID: 8305932

Claim:
A method for growing an existing internet protocol multimedia subsystem network, comprising: defining a growth core module to support a specific number of subscribers, wherein the growth core module is assigned a module identifier; upgrading existing network entities that will be impacted by an installation of the growth core module in the existing internet protocol multimedia subsystem network; and installing the growth core module in the IMS existing internet protocol multimedia subsystem network, wherein the existing internet protocol multimedia subsystem network comprises: a plurality of existing core modules, wherein each of the plurality of existing core modules comprises: a plurality of existing local component groups, wherein each of the plurality of existing local component groups comprises a set of existing network entities comprising: a plurality of home subscriber servers, a plurality of proxy call session control functions, a plurality of interrogating call session control function, a plurality of serving call session control functions, a plurality of call charging related functions, a plurality of media gateway control functions, and a plurality of application servers; a plurality of existing access nodes wherein each of the plurality of access node comprises a set of existing network entities comprising: a plurality of existing session border controllers, a plurality of existing media gateways, and a plurality of existing media servers, wherein each of the existing media gateways comprises a plurality of virtual media gateways; and a plurality of existing common resources, wherein the plurality of existing common resources comprises: a plurality of existing domain name system servers, a plurality of existing E.164 number mapping servers, a plurality of existing element management systems, and a plurality of existing operations support systems.