Call distribution system.

摘要

The invention concerns an automatic call distribution system comprising a plurality of telephone exchanges or nodes (1...5) each capable of accepting traffic and re-routing the traffic to any one of the nodes. Each node (1...5) includes means for calculating an activity level dependent on the amount of traffic being handled by that node, of forwarding that activity level to the other nodes in the network and of calculating a threshold level, the arrangement being such that no node will re-route a call to a node having an activity level above the threshold level. Furthermore each node is operative periodically to send a message to each of the other nodes giving a unique identification of the sending node and its activity level, and in response to activity levels sent by the other nodes to calculate a mean activity level.