Abstract: A communications network includes packet-based networks that are coupled to various network elements. A method and apparatus is provided to implement telephony services in the communications network. The architecture for providing the telephony services may include several layers, including a network elements layer, an interface layer, and a services/application layer. The services/application layer is decoupled from the specific implementations of the network element layer so that a more flexible and convenient mechanism is provided to create telephony services. The telephony services may be implemented in software modules written in one of several possible languages, such as a telephony scripting language (TSL) or other language.

Abstract: A communications network includes packet-based networks that are coupled to various network elements. A method and apparatus is provided to implement telephony services in the communications network. The architecture for providing the telephony services may include several layers, including a network elements layer, an interface layer, and a services/application layer. The services/application layer is decoupled from the specific implementations of the network element layer so that a more flexible and convenient mechanism is provided to create telephony services. The telephony services may be implemented in software modules written in one of several possible languages, such as a telephony scripting language (TSL) or other language.

Abstract: A communications system includes nodes and terminals capable of being involved in a telephony session. Telephony cookies may be created in telephony sessions between a calling terminal and a called terminal. The telephony cookies may be created by the called terminal and sent to the calling terminal for storage. Contents of the telephony cookie may include identifiers of the calling terminal and the called terminal. Other contents may include the date and time the cookie was created, expiration data and time of the cookie, and a data field that can store other types of information relating to telephony sessions.

Abstract: A communication system includes packet-based networks that are coupled to terminals capable of participating in telephony sessions. To implement telephony services in such sessions, a telephony scripting language (TSL) is defined. Script modules may be created using TSL. Each script module may include a state machine having a plurality of states. TSL defines triggers that cause the state machine in an executed script module to transition between the states. In addition, TSL also defines actions that are specified in the several states or in transitions between states. The actions represent telephony services that may be performed by nodes coupled to the networks. Each action may be converted to one or more calls to functions or routines provided by application programming interfaces (APIs) residing in the network nodes.