NETWORK-BASED MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATIONS AND DIRECTORY SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATION

摘要

A communications system (10) is provided which comprises a plurality of network hubs (12, 14 and 16). Network hubs (12, 14 and 16) are interconnected through a communications network (18). The system (10) interconnects messaging systems (24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 40, 42 and 44) having disparate capabilities and using disparate communications protocols. The network hubs use numbers of connection processors (52 and 54) to interact with the messaging systems. A hub database (68) and message store (58) are used to store control information and messaging information within the network hubs. A network processor (60) is used to interact with other hubs within the communications system (10). A message router (72), connection manager (74), data replicator (76), and an administrative event manager (78) are used to control the operations of the hub in processing a message.