Patent ID: 6930998

Claim:
A telephony switch comprising: a switching fabric; a first interface adapted to connect the switching fabric to a packet fabric; a computing module operatively associated with the switching fabric and the first interface and capable of establishing calls through the switching fabric, the packet fabric, and the switching fabric and the packet fabric, the computing module adapted to: receive a call request for establishing a call between an originating endpoint and a terminating endpoint; based on the originating endpoint and the terminating endpoint, determine a select one of the switching fabric, the packet fabric, and the switching fabric and the packet fabric through which to establish the call; and establish the call through the select one of the switching fabric, the packet fabric, and the switching fabric and the packet fabric, wherein when at least one of the originating and terminating endpoints is coupled to the packet fabric, the call is established in part by sending a message to one of the at least one of the originating and the terminating endpoints to instruct the one of the at least one of the originating and terminating endpoints to enable communication for the call through the packet fabric.