| 摘要 |
<p>A gatekeeper, coupled to a source gateway and to multiple destination gateways operated by independent operators, for a clearinghouse system for controlling communications carried by an Internet Protocol (IP) compatible-wide area network of distributed computers. In response to receiving from the source gateway a request message, which serves as a request for authorization to complete a communication between a calling party and a called party, the gatekeeper processes the request message to determine whether to authorize this communication. This request message is typically formatted as an Admission Request (ARQ) signal compatible with the protocol defined by the ITU H.225.0 standard and can comprise an identification of the source gateway and a telephone number for the called party. The gatekeeper processes the request message by inquiring whether at least one of the destination gateways is available to receive the communication. If so, the gatekeeper can send a confirmation message to the source gateway to authorize the communication. The confirmation message is typically formatted as an Authorization Confirm (ACF) signal compatible with the protocol defined by the ITU H.225.0 standard and can comprise an identification of each of the destination gateways available to accept the communication.</p> |
