Abstract: The present invention provides a telephony-accessed application system for providing a service, such as voicemail, in accordance with a switching interface such as in the ITU-T H.323 or IETF SIP recommendation. Queuing functionality is made possible in a system which employs a switch which does not support queuing. The queuing functionality is made possible by a queue means which is provided within an application means, i.e. the voicemail means itself. Consequently, the switch itself is relieved of the burden of having to keep track of the exact status of each of its ports at all times. The high-level queuing is performed at a logical level rather than at the physical level, and therefore affords a cleaner interface. Furthermore, the implementation of the queuing functions in the terminating application means allows for the use of a wider variety of intermediate switch means in a network.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system with a redirect functionality that removes the potential of a bottleneck inherent with a central redirect server. In a communications system according to the present invention, the central redirect server is eliminated in favor of a distributed redirect server. This distributed redirect server is distributed to, and hosted on, telephony access nodes (TANs) in the system. This configuration resolves both the problem of a potential bottleneck and provisioning of redundant redirect server capability.

Abstract: The present invention provides a telephony-accessed application system for providing a service, such as voicemail, in accordance with a switching interface such as in the ITU-T H.323 or IETF SIP recommendation. Queuing functionality is made possible in a system which employs a switch which does not support queuing. The queuing functionality is made possible by a queue means which is provided within an application means, i.e. the voicemail means itself. Consequently, the switch itself is relieved of the burden of having to keep track of the exact status of each of its ports at all times. The high-level queuing is performed at a logical level rather than at the physical level, and therefore affords a cleaner interface. Furthermore, the implementation of the queuing functions in the terminating application means allows for the use of a wider variety of intermediate switch means in a network.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system with a redirect functionality that removes the potential of a bottleneck inherent with a central redirect server. In a communications system according to the present invention, the central redirect server is eliminated in favor of a distributed redirect server. This distributed redirect server is distributed to, and hosted on, telephony access nodes (TANs) in the system. This configuration resolves both the problem of a potential bottleneck and provisioning of redundant redirect server capability.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system with a redirect functionality that removes the potential of a bottleneck inherent with a central redirect server. In a communications system according to the present invention, the central redirect server is eliminated in favor of a distributed redirect server. This distributed redirect server is distributed to, and hosted on, telephony access nodes (TANs) in the system. This configuration resolves both the problem of a potential bottleneck and provisioning of redundant redirect server capability.

Abstract: The present invention provides a telephony-accessed application system for providing a service, such as voicemail, in accordance with a switching interface such as in the ITU-T H.323 or IETF SIP recommendation. Queuing functionality is made possible in a system which employs a switch which does not support queuing. The queuing functionality is made possible by a queue means which is provided within an application means, i.e. the voicemail means itself. Consequently, the switch itself is relieved of the burden of having to keep track of the exact status of each of its ports at all times. The high-level queuing is performed at a logical level rather than at the physical level, and therefore affords a cleaner interface. Furthermore, the implementation of the queuing functions in the terminating application means allows for the use of a wider variety of intermediate switch means in a network.

Abstract: The present invention seeks to provide a bridge between traditional TDM PBX/KTS messaging and current IP-based messaging, allowing effective deployment of a hosted service in a transitional network that still requires TDM access via the PSTN. According to the present invention, the centralized messaging system of the prior art is decomposed into a back end cluster and a plurality of telephony access nodes (TANs). Each of the TANs will: terminate media and call processing from an associated local telephony switch; contain the service logic for the messaging application; and interact with the back end cluster. This provision permits a user to perform communications on a local telephony access node without making a call over the public switched network. However, a switch is also provided at each telephony access node to permit user access to the telephony access node.

Abstract: A method and system for fallback to message compose on the calling party's own supervisory (messaging) system on a synchronous call attempt. In particular, where a calling party cannot have a synchronous call with a called party due to busy signal, no answer, reaching a called party's messaging system or the wrong person or other reasons, address information for the called party is retrieved, the call is dropped (disconnected or the call request is discontinued), and a message compose session is established for the calling party, with the called party's address information pre-filled (i.e. destination number, voice mail number, e-mail address, pager number, etc.). In this way, the calling party does not need to take any additional steps to compose a message or to determine the called party's address information or alternate address information and, further, can compose a message using the calling party's own message compose system.