Patent ID: 7796581

Claim:
A method of operating a communication system to automatically update route control information, the method comprising: querying a plurality of network elements in a telecommunication network to identify egress routes that are coupled to the network elements and to identify external nodes that are coupled to the egress routes, and receiving responses from the network elements that identify the egress routes that are coupled to the network elements and that identify the external nodes that are coupled to the egress routes; comparing the responses to current route control information to determine new egress routes and new external nodes; querying a database with identifiers for the new external nodes to identify telephone numbers indicated by NPA-NXX that are associated with the new external nodes, and receiving responses from the database that identify the telephone numbers that are associated with the new external nodes; for each one of the telephone numbers that is associated with one of the new external nodes, associating the one telephone number with ones of the new egress routes that are coupled to the one new external node and associating the one telephone number with ones of the network elements that are coupled to the ones of the new egress routes; indicating the new egress routes and the new external nodes along with the associated telephone numbers on a network topology map; receiving a call to one of the telephone numbers, and in response, selecting one of the network elements and one of the egress routes that are associated with the one telephone number; and routing the call to the selected network element and routing the call from the selected network element over the selected egress route.