Proxy independent hunt group function in a packet based network

摘要

A system and method are provided for implementing the Hunt group function without the necessity of using any proxy functionalities. The Hunt group function can be independent of the signaling protocol being used by VoIP terminals. Consequently, there is no need of any special or proprietary signaling protocol to be implemented. Instead of registering all members or all VoIP nodes belonging to a Hunt group to a registration entity, only one pre-configured VoIP node belonging to the particular Hunt group needs to be registered. Likewise, instead of all members or VoIP nodes in the Hunt group registering with a registration entity and having a Hunt group number in addition to their usual peer-to-peer numbers, only one pre-configured VoIP node in the Hunt group would perform the registration and be registered with the Hunt group number. All incoming calls to the Hunt group will be directed by the gateway to the pre-configured VoIP node first. A method of the present embodiment may be performed by the gateway to ensure that the incoming call is forwarded to a VoIP node within the Hunt group.