Patent ID: 7792096

Claim:
A method for distributed resource allocation between media gateways (MGs) in a cluster of MGs, the method comprising: (a) communicating, between media gateways (MGs) in a cluster of MGs controlled by a media gateway controller (MGC), available resources provided by each of the MGs; and (b) at the MGs: identifying resources required for a call involving one or more of the MGs and for which call setup messages are received from the MGC; (ii) applying rules to select resources for the call from the available resources; and (iii) allocating the selected resources to process the call, wherein allocating the selected resources to process the call does not involve the MGC, wherein when a first MG of the cluster of MGs identifies a second MG of the cluster of MGs to provide a codec conversion needed for the call, the first MG sends a message to the second MG to request that the second MG provide the codec conversion.