Patent ID: 6888833

Claim:
A system for connecting a call having call signaling and user communications, the system comprising: a signaling interface adapted to receive and process the call signaling to determine call information elements, to transmit the call information elements, to receive new call information elements, and to transmit the now call information elements as new call signaling; a call processor adapted to receive the call information elements from the signaling interface, to process the call information elements to determine the new call information elements, to determine a destination for the new call signaling, to select either a Signaling System #7 (SS7) format or a packet signaling format for the new call signaling, and to transfer the new call information elements to the signaling interface in either the SS7 format or the packet signaling format; and an asynchronous transfer mode matrix adapted to receive the new call signaling in the packet signaling format from the signaling interface and to transmit the new call signaling using an asynchronous transfer mode connection.