Geographic routing via labels in SIP redirect

1. A method of selecting a gateway to which to present a hand-off request for an outgoing communication session, comprising:

accessing address information of a target device representing a final termination of the outgoing communication session, the final termination existing within a service area location;

accessing a gateway database storing gateway data for gateways of plural communication carriers, respectively, the gateway data of each subject gateway including an IP address and at least one connection efficiency value for the subject gateway and further including both carrier identification indicating the communication carrier that owns the subject gateway, and location information indicating a location where the subject gateway is located;

considering the connection efficiency values of the gateways of the plural communication carriers in the gateway database according to a predetermined selection criteria;

considering the location information of gateways of the plural communication carriers in the gateway database in view of the service area location of the final termination;

determining a hierarchical subset list identifying at least one communication carrier having a gateway within the service area location of the final termination, wherein the hierarchical subset list includes labeling within a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) invite;

determining a failover value for each communication carrier indicated within the hierarchical subset list, where the failover value of a subject communication carrier defines a number of gateway IF addresses that a subject communication carrier label of the labeling should be resolved into; and

selecting at least one gateway to which to present the hand-off request based on the connection efficiency values of the gateways, the determined hierarchical subset list, and the determined failover value for each communication carrier indicated within the hierarchical subset list.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein “q” values within the SIP invite are used to indicate a hierarchy of communication carriers identified within the hierarchical subset list.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein failover values for the communication carriers in the hierarchical subset listing are included within the SIP invite.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , the method further comprising:

receiving the SIP invite including the labeling at a call server, and resolving the labeling in at least one Internet protocol (IP) address of the at least one gateway to which to present the hand-off request.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the gateway data contains a separate said at least one connection efficiency value for plural gateways, respectively, of at least one carrier of the plural communication carriers; and

wherein the considering considers the separate said at least one connection efficiency values, respectively, of the plural gateways of a subject communication carrier, to select the at least one gateway of the subject communication carrier, to which to present the hand-off request.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the connection efficiency values for the gateways are more particularly latency values of the gateways, respectively, and wherein the considering considers the latency values via a predetermined latency selection criteria to select the gateway connection.

7. At least one non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a set of instructions executable on at least one computing device to cause the at least one computing device to select a gateway to which to present a hand-off request for an outgoing communication session, by:

accessing address information of a target device representing a final termination of the outgoing communication session, the final termination existing within a service area location;

accessing a gateway database storing gateway data for gateways of plural communication carriers, respectively, the gateway data of each subject gateway including an IP address and at least one connection efficiency value for the subject gateway and further including both carrier identification indicating the communication carrier that owns the subject gateway, and location information indicating a location where the subject gateway is located;

considering the connection efficiency values of the gateways of the plural communication carriers in the gateway database according to a predetermined selection criteria;

considering the location information of gateways of the plural communication carriers in the gateway database in view of the service area location of the final termination;

determining a hierarchical subset list identifying at least one communication carrier having a gateway within the service area location of the final termination, wherein the hierarchical subset list includes labeling within a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) invite;

determining a failover value for each communication carrier indicated within the hierarchical subset list, where the failover value of a subject communication carrier defines a number of gateway IP addresses that a subject communication carrier label of the labeling should be resolved into; and

selecting at least one gateway to which to present the hand-off request based on the connection efficiency values of the gateways, the determined hierarchical subset list, and the determined failover value for each communication carrier indicated within the hierarchical subset list.

8. The medium as claimed in claim 7 , wherein “q” values within the SIP invite are used to indicate a hierarchy of communication carriers identified within the hierarchical subset list.

9. The medium as claimed in claim 7 , wherein failover values for the communication carriers in the hierarchical subset listing are included within the SIP invite.

10. The medium as claimed in claim 7 , further comprising instructions for:

receiving the SIP invite including the labeling at a call server, and resolving the labeling in at least one Internet protocol (IP) address of the at least one gateway to which to present the hand-off request.

11. The medium as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the gateway data contains a separate said at least one connection efficiency value for plural gateways, respectively, of at least one carrier of the plural communication carriers; and

wherein the considering considers the separate said at least one connection efficiency values, respectively, of the plural gateways of a subject communication carrier, to select the at least one gateway of the subject communication carrier, to which to present the hand-off request.

12. The medium as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the connection efficiency values for the gateways are more particularly latency values of the gateways, respectively, and wherein the considering considers the latency values via a predetermined latency selection criteria to select the gateway connection.

13. A system for selecting a gateway to which to present a hand-off request for an outgoing communication session, comprising: a processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium to store a set of instructions for execution by the processor, the set of instructions to cause the processor to:

access address information of a target device representing a final termination of the outgoing communication session, the final termination existing within a service area location;

access a gateway database storing gateway data for gateways of plural communication carriers, respectively, the gateway data of each subject gateway including an IP address and at least one connection efficiency value for the subject gateway and further including both carrier identification indicating the communication carrier that owns the subject gateway, and location information indicating a location where the subject gateway is located;

consider the connection efficiency values of the gateways of the plural communication carriers in the gateway database according to a predetermined selection criteria;

consider the location information of gateways of the plural communication carriers in the gateway database in view of the service area location of the final termination;

determine a hierarchical subset list identifying at least one communication carrier having a gateway within the service area location of the final termination, wherein the hierarchical subset list includes labeling within a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) invite;

determine a failover value for each communication carrier indicated within the hierarchical subset list, where the failover value of a subject communication carrier defines a number of gateway IP addresses that a subject communication carrier label of the labeling should be resolved into; and

select at least one gateway to which to present the hand-off request based on the connection efficiency values of the gateways, the determined hierarchical subset list, and the determined failover value for each communication carrier indicated within the hierarchical subset list.

14. The system as claimed in claim 13 , wherein “q” values within the SIP invite are used to indicate a hierarchy of communication carriers identified within the hierarchical subset list.

15. The system as claimed in claim 13 , wherein failover values for the communication carriers in the hierarchical subset listing are included within the SIP invite.

16. The system as claimed in claim 13 , further comprising instructions to cause the processor to:

receive the SIP invite including the labeling at a call server, and resolve the labeling in at least one Internet protocol (IP) address of the at least one gateway to which to present the hand- off request.

17. The system as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the gateway data contains a separate said at least one connection efficiency value for plural gateways, respectively, of at least one carrier of the plural communication carriers; and

wherein the consider operation considers the separate said at least one connection efficiency values, respectively, of the plural gateways of a subject communication carrier, to select the at least one gateway of the subject communication carrier, to which to present the hand-off request.

18. The system as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the connection efficiency values for the gateways are more particularly latency values of the gateways, respectively, and wherein the consider operation considers the latency values via a predetermined latency selection criteria to select the gateway connection.