Patent ID: 7941537

Claim:
A method of allocating resources in a distributed telecommunication system, comprising: collecting respective sets of performance parameters of a first plurality of nodes disposed in a first node group and a second plurality of nodes in a second node group, wherein the first node group and the second node group include telecommunications nodes configured to provide at least one of voice call processing services and integrated voice- and data-switched services, wherein the voice call processing services include at least one of call control, signaling, and media services; evaluating service capabilities of the first node group and the second node group based on the sets of performance parameters; responsive to evaluating the service capabilities, designating one node group of the first node group and the second node group as a currently preferred node group; repeating the steps of collecting, evaluating, and designating a plurality of times; designating the currently preferred node group as an active preferred node group in the event that a sequence of evaluating service capabilities results in the one node group being designated as the currently preferred node group, wherein evaluating service capabilities comprises evaluating a prioritized attribute list of respective measures for the first node group and the second node group, wherein the respective measures for the first node group and the second node group include at least one of a count of online media gateway controllers, a count of online media gateways, a measure of aggregate central processing unit power, and a count of active applications; and selectively designating a first subset of the applications within the first and second node groups as herdable and a second subset of the applications within the first and second node groups as non-herdable, wherein an application designated as herdable can be switched between an active mode and a standby mode for application migration and wherein an application designated as non-herdable cannot be switched between the active mode and the standby mode for application migration, and wherein the designation for each subset of applications is stored in a data structure.