Patent ID: 8150013

Claim:
A method for centrally monitoring and/or controlling communications between a public packet-switched communications network and an enterprise packet-switched communications network, the method comprising: centrally configuring at least one rule designating at least one action to be performed based on at least one attribute associated with at least one real-time packet-switched call between the public packet-switched communications network and the enterprise packet-switched communications network; downloading the at least one rule to an in-line device connected to the enterprise packet-switched communications network, the in-line device collocated or integrated into at least one packet-switched network element selected from the group of packet-switched network elements comprising: a media gateway, an Internet-Protocol firewall, an Internet-Protocol telephone, a gateway router, a Channel Service Unit, a network hub, and a bridged router; routing the at least one real-time packet-switched call through the in-line device; determining, at the in-line device, the at least one attribute associated with the at least one real-time packet-switched call; generating, at the in-line device, a call event record associated with determining the at least one attribute associated with the at least one real-time packet-switched call; performing, at the in-line device, the at least one action in accordance with the at least one rule; generating, at the in-line device, at least one later call event record associated with performing the at least one action in accordance with the at least one rule; and generating an alert and/or a report based on either the call event record or the at least one later call event record generated in association with the at least one real-time packet-switched call.