Abstract: Methods and systems for a distributed scalable hardware independent system that supports multiple functions regarding management and support of communications over a packet-based network. The communications supported by these methods and systems include, but are not limited to, Voice Over Internet Protocol (“VOIP”), voice over Asynchronous Transfer Mode (“ATM”), video conferencing, data transfer, telephony, and downloading video or other data. These methods and systems use a call agent, which is composed of various objects distributed along a CORBA software bus, for exercising call management over two endpoints communicating over a packet-based network.