VOICE OVER DATA TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

摘要

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 (112) from and to any of an LEC, a customer facility or a direct IP connection on the data network. The system includes soft switch sites (104, 106), gateway sites (108, 110), a data network (112), a provisioning component (117), a network event component (116) and a network management component (118). The system interfaces with customer facilities (128, 132) (e.g., a PBX) carrier facilities (126, 130) (e.g., an LEC) and legacy signalling networks (114) (e.g., SS7) to handle calls between any combination of on-network and off-network callers.