COMMUNICATIONS DISTRIBUTION APPARATUS AND METHOD

摘要

A computer system (figure 1) and a method for distributing, decisions in a network. The user interface system (100) is connected to multiple gateway systems (102a, 102b, ...., 122z) via communicaition lines as a standard telephone or direct communication line (122a, 122b, ...., 122z) respectively. Each gateway system is connected to multiple domain systems (104a through 104z; 106a through 106z; and 108a through 108z) respectively vi communications lines (124a through 124z; 126a through 126z and 128a through 128z) respectively. The network is partitioned into multiple levels including a user interface level, a gate level and a domain level. All attached devices in the network communicate either directly or indirectly with user interface unit. Each gateway system has decision making capability.