Patent ID: 7453890

Claim:
In a communication system comprising a gateway node arranged to establish communications between a first communication network and a second circuit-switched communication network via a plurality of given circuit-switched channels of said second communication network, said given circuit-switched channels being associated with said gateway node, and at least two control entities arranged to control communications between said first and second networks, where each of said control entities is allocated a respective group of said given channels for control, a method for reallocating said given circuit-switched channels among said control entities, comprising the steps of: automatically monitoring one or more sources of communication performance information, by comparing a number of momentarily occupied circuit-switched channels among the circuit-switched channels allocated to a particular control entity with one or more predetermined occupation thresholds, and comparing a time average of a number of occupied circuit-switched channels among the circuit-switched channels allocated to a particular control entity with one or more predetermined traffic thresholds; on the basis of data received from said one or more sources of communication performance information, automatically determining whether a reallocation triggering condition is met, and if said reallocation triggering condition is met, automatically performing a reallocation procedure for calculating a reallocation of said given circuit-switched channels among said control entities.