Patent ID: 7702726

Claim:
A system for providing presence state services in an Internet Protocol network, the system comprising: a central presence server configured to authenticate, track, store, and provide user presence information specific to each of a plurality of users, the user presence information being stored in a database at the central presence server; and a local presence server in communication with the central presence server and communicatively coupled with a signaling server, the local presence server configured to store local presence authorization data in a local database, the local presence authorization data being specific to each of a subset of the plurality of users and generated from information obtained from the user presence information at the central presence server, and being generated at the local presence server in response to one or more requests from the signaling server on behalf of a user to enable communications between the user and each user of the subset of the plurality of users, wherein the user is not one of the subset of the plurality of users, the local presence server is configured to receive a service authorization request from the signaling server on behalf of the user, the service authorization request comprising a request to initiate communication with at least one of the subset of the plurality of users, and, the local presence server is configured to responsively authorize the service authorization request using the local presence authorization data.