Method and system for dynamic gateway selection in an IP telephony network

• US 20040258239A1
• Filed: 07/13/2004
• Published: 12/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Donovan, Steven R., Gallant, John K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,743,892 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5667 IP over ATM
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/103 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/104 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1043 Gateway controllers, e.g. media gateway control protocol [MGCP] controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1285 Details of finding and selecting a gateway for a particular call

Abstract

A method and system for dynamically selecting a destination gateway to complete a call over a path supported at least in part by an IP telephony network and a public switched telephone network. The method and system further provide for dynamically detecting available gateways, dynamically removing failed and/or unavailable gateways, and automatically recovering failed and/or unavailable gateways after a predetermined period of time. A method is also provided for detecting available destination gateways using a ping method, where a message is transmitted to a plurality of destination gateways on a one-by-one basis to ascertain the availability status of each destination gateway.

Claims

1-22. -22. (Canceled)

23. A system for selecting a destination gateway in a network, comprising:

a proxy server operatively connected to an ingress gateway and a plurality of destination gateways; and

a redirect server operatively connected to the proxy server,

wherein the proxy server is configured to receive a call setup request from the ingress gateway and request routing information relating to the call setup request from the redirect server,

wherein the redirect server is configured to retrieve the routing information and forward the routing information to the proxy server, the routing information including a listing of one or more destination gateways capable of handling the call setup request, and

wherein the proxy server is configured to forward the call setup request to at least one of the destination gateways listed in the routing information.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the proxy server is further configured to receive a success response from one of the destination gateways and forward the success response to the ingress gateway to facilitate call setup.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the proxy server is further configured to forward the call setup message successively to multiple destination gateways if the success response is not received.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the proxy server is further configured to record a destination gateway status as unavailable if the success response from the destination gateway is not received within a predetermined time and record a destination gateway status as unavailable if a response from the destination gateway indicates the destination gateway is unavailable.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the proxy server is further configured to forward a request failure response to the ingress gateway if the success response is not received.

28. The system of claim 23, wherein the redirect server is further configured to pass a request failure response to the proxy server in response to the request for routing information if at least one destination gateways capable of handling the call setup request is not identified.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the proxy server is further configured to forward the request failure response to the ingress gateway.

30. The system of claim 23, wherein the redirect server is further configured to store routing information and destination gateway status information in a gateway information table.

31. The system of claim 23, wherein the proxy server comprises a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) proxy server.

32. The system of claim 23, wherein the proxy server comprises an H.323 gatekeeper.

33. A system for selecting a destination gateway in a network, comprising:

a proxy server operatively connected to an ingress gateway and a plurality of destination gateways; and

a redirect server operatively connected to the proxy server,

wherein the proxy server is configured to receive a call setup request from the ingress gateway and request routing information relating to the call setup request from the redirect server,

wherein the redirect server is configured to retrieve the routing information and forward the routing information to the proxy server, the routing information including a listing of one or more destination gateways capable of handling the call setup request, and

wherein the proxy server is configured to forward a response request message to at least one of the destination gateways listed in the routing information.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the proxy server is further configured to receive an acknowledgement response from the destination gateway, the response indicating that the destination gateway is available.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the proxy server is further configured to forward a request message and receive an acknowledgment response for each of the one or more destination gateways.

36. The system of claim 34, wherein the proxy server is further configured to wait for the acknowledgement response from the destination gateway for a predetermined period of time.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the proxy server is further configured to record a destination gateway as unavailable if the acknowledgement response is not received within the predetermined period of time.

38. A method for selecting a destination gateway in a network, comprising:

receiving a call setup request from an ingress gateway;

requesting routing information relating to the call setup request from a redirect server;

receiving routing information from the redirect server when routing information is available, the routing information including a listing of one or more destination gateways capable of handling the call setup request;

forwarding the call setup request to at least one of the destination gateways listed in the routing information;

receiving a request failure response from the redirect server when routing information is not available, the request failure response indicating that no destination gateways are available to handle the call setup request; and

forwarding the request failure response to the ingress gateways.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

receiving a success response from one of the destination gateways; and

forwarding the success response to the ingress gateway to facilitate call setup.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising:

forwarding the call setup to request to a successive destination gateway listed in the routing information when the success response is not received from the destination gateway.

41. A method for selecting a destination gateway in a network, comprising:

receiving a call setup request from an ingress gateway;

requesting routing information relating to the call setup request from a redirect server;

receiving routing information from the redirect server when routing information is available, the routing information including a listing of one or more destination gateways capable of handling the call setup request; and

forwarding a response request to at least one of the destination gateways listed in the routing information.

42. The method of claim 41, further comprising:

receiving an acknowledgement response from the destination gateway, the response indicating that the destination gateway is available.

43. The method of claim 41, further comprising:

repeating the steps of forwarding a request message and receiving a response for each of the one or more destination gateways.

44. A system for selecting a destination gateway in a network, comprising:

a server operatively connected to an ingress gateway and a plurality of destination gateways,

wherein the server is configured to receive a call setup request from the ingress gateway,

wherein the server is configured to retrieve routing information relating to the call setup request, the routing information including a listing of one or more destination gateways capable of handling the call setup request,

wherein the server is configured to forward the call setup request to at least one of the destination gateways listed in the routing information.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the server is further configured to receive a success response from one of the destination gateways and forward the success response to the ingress gateway to facilitate call setup.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein the server is further configured to forward the call setup message successively to multiple destination gateways if the success response is not received.

47. The system of claim 45, wherein the server is further configured to record a destination gateway status as unavailable if the success response from the destination gateway is not received within a predetermined time and record a destination gateway status as unavailable if a response from the destination gateway indicates the destination gateway is unavailable.

48. The system of claim 45, wherein the server is further configured to forward a request failure response to the ingress gateway if the success response is not received.

49. The system of claim 44, wherein the server is further configured to forward a request failure response to the ingress gateway if no routing information relating to the call setup request is retrieved.

50. The system of claim 44, wherein the server is further configured to store routing information and destination gateway status information in a gateway information table.