Abstract: A telephone system architecture enabling various components of a telephone system to be distributed geographically yet operates as a seamlessly integrated system. A signaling gateway interfaces to the PSTN and through an SS7 interface. The signaling gateway includes a telephony protocol server. At least one other component of the telephone system includes a telephony protocol client. The telephony protocol client and telephony protocol server communicate over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The telephony protocol server provides access to the PSTN to the component having the telephony protocol client. Any functions in the various components that require an SS7 interface to the PSTN are simply handled through the signaling gateway by the telephony protocol server.