Patent ID: 8156194

Claim:
A signaling gateway for passing messages from a first network to an application server process provided on a second network, the messages comprising a transaction identifier, wherein the transaction identifier comprising a set of bits utilized by a transmission protocol, and a set of remaining bits comprising a part; the signaling gateway is configured to receive an initial message from a calling entity and read the transaction identifier within the initial message, to identify the application server process from the part of the transaction identifier, to forward the initial message to the application server process, to receive a continuation message from the application server process, in response to the application server process receiving the initial message, the continuation message including the transaction identifier, to modify the transaction identifier within the continuation message as a modified transaction identifier, and to forward the continuation message to the calling entity, wherein the modified transaction identifier includes at least a part identifying the application server process and a further part identifying an application server prior to forwarding the continuation message to the calling entity, and the set of remaining bits of the transaction identifier comprises the part and the further part.