摘要 |
A telephony session between a near-end calling party and a far-end calling party is established through a near-end voice gateway and a far-end voice gateway within a telephone communication system. A subscriber to the communication system chooses, either dynamically when the subscriber places a call set-up request or when the subscriber signs up for services with an Internet Service Provider, a high quality service, a low cost service, or an opportunistic service, and is charged accordingly. When a high quality service is chosen, all of the subscriber's calls are routed via a near-end voice gateway. When a low cost service is chosen, all of the subscriber's calls are routed via a far-end voice gateway. When opportunistic service is chosen, calls are routed via either the far-end voice gateway or the near-end voice gateway. The gateway selected depends on the Internet's capability to meet a quality of service (QoS) level specified by the subscriber. When the performance of the Internet can support the specified QoS, the call is routed via the far-end voice gateway. When the Internet cannot support the specified QoS level, the call is routed via the near-end voice gateway.
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