Patent ID: 8355314

Claim:
A method of routing a call in a packet network, comprising: attempting to establish the call to a destination endpoint; detecting, by a processor, a failure condition for the destination endpoint for the call, wherein the failure condition causes the destination endpoint to be unable to perform its intended function, wherein the detecting comprises: identifying an unavailability of the destination endpoint; and determining the unavailability of the destination endpoint between an error condition and a non-error condition based upon a failure to receive a busy/no answer message in response to a call setup message; wherein the failure condition is detected only in response to the unavailability of the destination endpoint due to the error condition; identifying an alternative endpoint address from an alternative routing plan registered with the packet network only in response to the failure condition due to the error condition, wherein the alternative endpoint address is not identified for the non-error condition, wherein the identifying of the alternative endpoint address comprises: notifying an application server coupled to a database configured to store alternate routing plans for a plurality of endpoints; and receiving the alternative endpoint address from the application server that was obtained by the application server by querying the database in response to the notifying; and routing the call to the alternative endpoint address.