Patent ID: 7734027

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: one or more call control components that run on one or more processor systems; wherein one of the one or more call control components connects an internet protocol (IP) call initiated by a communication device to an internet protocol endpoint; and wherein the one of the one or more call control components has an interface to an IP network to a) communicatively couple a public switched telephone network (PSTN) to allow the internet protocol endpoint to communicate with at least one landline endpoint and b) allow the internet protocol endpoint to communicate with another internet protocol endpoint located in another IP domain; and wherein the one of the one or more call control components collects identification information of the communication device and sends the identification information to the internet protocol endpoint upon a determination that the internet protocol endpoint is authorized to obtain the identification information; and wherein the internet protocol endpoint comprises a call trace button; and wherein activation of the call trace button sends a trace initiation message to the one of the one or more call control components to initiate an internet protocol call trace service of the one of the one or more call control components that collects the identification information of the communication device; and wherein the one of the one or more call control components sends an error message to the internet protocol endpoint when there is insufficient internet protocol call trace service information in an internet protocol service database.