Granted Patent B2

US 9,253,142 · App. 13/118,140 · Granted Feb 2, 2016

Abstract

Claims (51)

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a computing element, data associated with an E.164 number mapping (ENUM) request from an element of a telecommunications network, said data associated with the ENUM request including a domain name;

associating, by the computing element, logical ingress trunk-group information and gateway information with the ENUM request;

determining a network device to associate with a logical trunk and a gateway device, said determining comprising:

(i) comparing the received data with information associated with a set of ENUM clients stored in a database, and

(ii) upon the received data matching data associated with an ENUM client of the set of ENUM clients, defining the ENUM client as an ingress gateway for the gateway information and an associated ingress default trunk group for the logical ingress trunk group information; and

managing, by the computing element, a call through a packet-based network based at least in part on the logical ingress trunk-group information and the gateway information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the data associated with the ENUM request further comprises an IP address.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the domain name, the IP address, or both is associated with the element of the telecommunications network.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein managing the call comprises at least one of routing the call through the packet-based network, establishing a predetermined class of service with the call, or any combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein routing the call through the packet-based network comprises routing the call according to a routing policy.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein traffic control is performed, the traffic control comprises limiting a number of routing requests.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein managing the call comprises associating signaling information with the call for routing through the packet-based network.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein managing the call comprises processing an ingress portion of the call including at least one of digit manipulation, dial-plan processing, class-of-service processing, number translation, local number portability, or any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the element of the telecommunications network is an endpoint device and the ingress logical trunk-group information and the gateway information are associated with the endpoint device.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the element of the telecommunications network is an ENUM aggregator and the logical ingress trunk-group information and the gateway information are associated with an endpoint device of the telecommunications network in communication with the aggregator.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether the ingress default trunk group is configured;

determining whether hop-by-hop routing is enabled; and

routing the call based on an original source of the ENUM request or an immediately preceding element of the telecommunications network.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising routing the call through the packet-based network wherein an IP signaling profile is included in said logical ingress trunk group information and said IP signaling profile is used to control the media and signaling attributes in an ENUM response.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving data associated with a policy query based in part on the ingress gateway and the default ingress trunk group.

14. A telecommunications system comprising:

an interface in communication with a telecommunications network and a packet-based network for receiving data associated with an E.164 number mapping (ENUM) request from an element of the telecommunications network;

a processor module configured to:

(i) associate logical ingress trunk group information and gateway information with the ENUM request,

(ii) determine a network device to associate with a logical trunk and a gateway device by comparing the received data associated with an E.164 number mapping request with information associated with a set of ENUM clients stored in a database, and

(iii) upon the received data matching data associated with an ENUM client of the set of ENUM clients, define the ENUM client as an ingress gateway for the gateway information and an associated ingress default trunk group for the logical ingress trunk group information, and

(iv) manage a call through the packet-based network based at least in part on the logical ingress trunk group information and the gateway information; and

a policy server in communication with the processor module to provide a routing policy for routing the call through the packet-based network.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the element of the telecommunications network is an aggregator of ENUM requests.

16. The system of claim 14 further comprising a forwarder of ENUM requests, wherein the element of the telecommunications network is an aggregator of ENUM requests or an endpoint device.

17. A computer program product, tangibly embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, containing instructions operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

receive data associated with an E.164 number mapping (ENUM) request from an element of a telecommunications network, said data associated with the ENUM request including a domain name;

associate logical ingress trunk-group information and gateway information with the ENUM request;

determine a network device to associate with a logical trunk and a gateway device by comparing the received data with information associated with a set of ENUM clients stored in a database, and

upon the received data matching data associated with an ENUM client of the set of ENUM clients, define the ENUM client as an ingress gateway for the gateway information and an associated ingress default trunk group for the logical ingress trunk group information; and

manage a call through the packet-based network based at least in part on the ingress logical trunk group and the gateway information.

18. A telecommunications system comprising:

an interface in communication with a telecommunications network and a packet-based network for receiving an E.164 number mapping (ENUM) request and data associated with the E.164 number mapping (ENUM) request from an element of the telecommunications network, said element being a SIP, H.323 or Diameter endpoint and said ENUM request being based on the IP address of the element;

a special purpose processor configured to:

(i) associate logical ingress trunk group information and gateway information with the ENUM request,

(ii) determine a network device to associate with a logical trunk and a gateway device by comparing the received data associated with the E.164 number mapping (ENUM) request with information associated with a set of ENUM clients stored in a database, and

(iii) upon the received data matching data associated with an ENUM client of the set of ENUM clients, define the ENUM client as an ingress gateway for the gateway information and an associated ingress default trunk group for the logical ingress trunk group information, and

(iv) manage a call through the packet-based network based at least in part on the logical ingress trunk group information and the gateway information.

19. The telecommunications system of claim 18 further comprising:

a memory containing the database in which the set of ENUM clients is stored; and wherein

said element of the telecommunications network is a Diameter endpoint;

said special purpose processor is further configured to identify an ENUM client from said set of ENUM clients contained in said memory based on said IP address of the element; and

said special purpose processor is further configured to associate logical ingress trunk group information and gateway information with ENUM requests based on a longest match algorithm for ENUM domains.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein said special purpose processor is further configured to route the call through the packet-based network wherein an IP signaling profile is included in said logical ingress trunk group information and said IP signaling profile is used to control the media and signaling attributes in an ENUM response.

Assignments (10)