Method and apparatus for tagging customer specific signalling packets

摘要

A method and apparatus for enabling a network provider to tag calls originating from distinct customer segments and process these tagged calls according to rules associated with their tagged identities are disclosed. For example, calls from a business or enterprise customer may be routed to a carrier who ensures 99.999% service availability at a certain cost, whereas calls from a residential customer may be routed to a lower cost carrier. The tags would be formatted in a standard way in the VoIP signaling header so that they can be recognized and acted upon by peered or partner carrier networks involved in processing these tagged calls.