Patent ID: 8767715

Claim:
A method of dynamically establishing Internet Protocol (IP) telephony sessions between enterprises, the method comprising: receiving, over a Hypertext Transfer Protocol channel, a request for an initial enterprise session border controller (SBC) configuration; providing an initial configuration for a specific service to the enterprise SBC in response to the received request for the initial enterprise SBC configuration; receiving at a dynamic federation system of a service provider an association request by a first enterprise to associate with a second enterprise, the first enterprise and the second enterprise both belonging to a federation and both using the service provider for IP telephony, wherein the service provider is coupled to the first enterprise via a first session initiation protocol (SIP) trunk and a first enterprise SBC, and is coupled to the second enterprise via a second SIP trunk and a second enterprise SBC, and the service provider comprises a public switched telephone network (PSTN) gateway for connecting an endpoint to the PSTN; accepting the association request on behalf of the second enterprise to establish an association between the first enterprise and the second enterprise; responsive to the acceptance, establishing a direct routed path between the first enterprise and the second enterprise; receiving a request by one of the enterprises to activate an IP telephony service provided by the service provider; and if the request to activate references the association, establishing an IP telephony session using the direct routed path, wherein the direct routed path bypasses the PSTN gateway and is linked to directory information.