METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTERCONNECTING AND COMMUNICATING BETWEEN CIRCUIT-SWITCHED AND PACKET-SWITCHED NETWORKS

摘要

A method and apparatus for interconnecting a circuit-switched telephone network and a packet-switched data network. A signaling trunk (22) is coupled to a signaling access server (112) that is also coupled to a signaling management and control network (12). Voice trunks (10) are coupled to network access servers (118), which are also coupled to the control network (12) to thereby receive instructions from the signaling access server (112). The network access servers (118) are also coupled to a packet switched data network (122). The signaling access server can receive call setup messages and other messages in standard telephone network protocol formats and convert them into call setup messages in a protocol for communicating between the signaling access server (112) and the network access servers (118). The signaling access server (112) can instruct the network access servers (118) to establish a call. Accordingly, the PSTN (4) and the Internet (122) may be connected and may inter-communicate without modifying either protocols.