Patent Document ID: 7821923
Application ID: 12026989
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of selectively routing signaling messages related to one or more multimedia sessions for at least one user, through a packet communication network, the method comprising steps of: at a first session initiation protocol (SIP) signaling node configured to provide a back-to-back user agent (B2BUA) function, monitoring at least two parameters relating to communications of session initiation protocol (SIP) signaling messages of the B2BUA function with each of a plurality of other SIP signaling nodes via the packet communication network, each of the other SIP signaling nodes being configured to provide a B2BUA function, wherein the at least two parameters relating to communication of the SIP signaling messages with each of the other SIP signaling nodes comprise two or more parameters selected from the group consisting of: (1) availability/unavailability status of communication with each of the other SIP signaling nodes; (2) congestion with respect to communication with each of the other SIP signaling nodes; (3) latency impacting communication with each of the other SIP signaling nodes; and (4) cost of communication with each of the other SIP signaling nodes; based on the monitoring of the parameters, identifying one of the other SIP signaling nodes as having optimal communications of SIP signaling messages; and communicating SIP signaling messages regarding one or more of the multimedia sessions to or from the first SIP signaling node with the identified other SIP signaling node via the packet communication network.