Patent ID: 8224928

Claim:
A method for use at a gateway node in a converged telephony/data network for distributing operating status information associated with a node in a signaling system 7 (SS7) network of the converged network to nodes in an Internet protocol (IP) network of the converged network, the method comprising: (a) receiving, at a gateway node, an SS7 network management message including operating status information associated with an SS7 node in the SS7 network; (b) performing, at the gateway node, a routing key database lookup using information contained in the SS7 network management message and identifying a node in the IP network capable of communicating with the SS7 node; and (c) in response to receiving the SS7 network management message and identifying the node in the IP network via the routing key database lookup, communicating, from the gateway node, the operating status information to the identified node in the IP network, wherein the identified node is located external to the gateway node.