Raymond E Waibel

US Patent:

8036214, Oct 11, 2011

Filed:

Jul 20, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/781067

Inventors:

Isaac K. Elliott - Broomfield CO, US
Steven P. Higgins - Colorado Springs CO, US
Andrew John Dugan - Superior CO, US
Jon Peterson - Boulder CO, US
Robert L. Hernandez - Longmont CO, US
Rick D. Steele - Longmont CO, US
Bruce W. Baker - Erie CO, US
Richard Terpstra - Louisville CO, US
Jonathan S. Mitchell - Superior CO, US
Harold Stearns - Erie CO, US
Eric Zimmerer - Westminster CO, US
Raymond E. Waibel - Arvada CO, US
Kraig Owen - Boulder CO, US
Shawn M. Lewis - Southboro MA, US

Assignee:

Level 3 Communications, LLC - Broomfield CO

International Classification:

H04L 12/66
H04J 3/22

US Classification:

370356, 370401, 370522

Abstract:

The present invention describes a system and method for communicating voice and data over a packet-switched network that is adapted to coexist and communicate with a legacy PSTN. The system permits packet switching of voice calls and data calls through a data network from and to any of a LEC, a customer facility or a direct IP connection on the data network. The system includes soft switch sites, gateway sites, a data network, a provisioning component, a network event component and a network management component. The system interfaces with customer facilities (e. g. , a PBX), carrier facilities (e. g. , a LEC) and legacy signaling networks (e. g. , SS7) to handle calls between any combination of on- network and off-network callers. The soft switch sites provide the core call processing for the voice network architecture. The soft switch sites manage the gateway sites in a preferred embodiment, using a protocol such as the Internet Protocol Device Control (IPDC) protocol to request the set-up and tear-down of calls.