OPTIMUM ROUTING OF CALLS OVER THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK AND THE INTERNET

摘要

A method and apparatus for selectively establishing a connection via a telephone network, or via the Internet. A network access switch decides whether to use the telephone network or the Internet. If connections are established using the Internet, the establishment of connection is controlled using existing CCS7 interoffice signaling messages. Advantagesouly, this permits most of the switching control software to be retained and allows the access switches to interface with the present array of operations support systems.