Patent ID: 7899063

Claim:
A method for converging multiple telecommunications networks, each including network components, into an integrated digital network such that the integrated digital network can provide common network service applications to multiple users, comprising: connecting a multi-service core to telecommunications networks, wherein the core can communicate with network components; interconnecting a gateway between the multi-service core and multiple network components, wherein the gateway is configured to share multiple service aspects with each network component and to utilize multiple transport protocols to communicate with different network components, the gateway providing quality of service (QoS) enabled communications by mapping legacy network QoS services to the multi-service core QoS services including mapping network characteristics from legacy network types to an MPLS core, the mapping including mapping a bit rate service class for a first type of network service to QoS classes in a second type of network service; coordinating communications between the gateway and network components; and resolving differences between protocols or communications between network components.