Patent ID: 8879419

Claim:
A system for establishing connection of an IP telephone to a network, said system comprising: a plurality of network access devices configured to enable IP telephones to access a communications network; and a network registration device in communication with each of said network access devices, said network registration device including: a memory configured to store a network address of each of said network access devices; an input/output (I/O) unit configured to communicate signals over the communications network; and a processing unit in communication with said memory and I/O unit, said processing unit configured to: in response to receiving a registration request from an IP telephone, generate a first command to cause the network access devices to ping the IP telephone via respective network paths to the IP telephone; communicate the first command to the network access devices; receive ping information for each of the network access devices in response to the network access devices pinging the IP telephone via the respective network paths, wherein the ping information includes at least delay, jitter, packet loss, number of hops, and round-trip time; select a first network access device that has the highest quality network access path to the IP telephone in response to the ping information; in response to selecting the first network access device that has the highest quality network access path to the IP telephone, communicate a network address of the selected first network access device to an application server, wherein the application server forwards the network address to the IP telephone to enable the IP telephone to communicate with the selected first network access device and to register with the selected first network access device, wherein the highest quality network access path to the IP telephone is determined and updated at least daily; and communicate credentials to the IP telephone to enable the IP telephone to register with the selected first network access device; when the network registration device is unavailable to the IP telephone, a user of the IP telephone causes the IP telephone to transmit an optimize message to the selected first network access device; wherein the selected first network access device, in response to receiving an optimize message generated by the IP telephone when the network registration device is unavailable to the IP telephone; generates a second command to cause the other network access devices to ping the IP telephone via respective network paths to the IP telephone; selects a second network access device that has the highest quality network access path to the IP telephone in response to ping information; and in response to selecting the second network access device that has the highest quality network access path to the IP telephone, communicates a network address of the selected second network access device to the IP telephone.