Method and system for providing virtual agents for telephony services

Abstract

A method and system in a communications network for managing multipath calls by establishing virtual communications nodes for effectively handling the automatic routing of communications transactions initiated within the communications network. A communications transaction is initiated from an originating node to a desired terminating node. The communications transaction is then automatically routed from the originating node to an alternative terminating node, in response to a predetermined control parameter, by associating a first virtual communications node with a first terminal of the desired terminating node, and associating a second virtual communications node with a second terminal of the desired terminating node. Completion of the automatic routing of the communications transaction to the alternative terminating node is accomplished by terminating the communications transaction at the alternative terminating node by routing the communications transaction through the first virtual communications node and the second communications node such that a multipath call placed from the originating node to the alternative terminating node is represented as a group of series of connections rather than a direct connection between the originating node and the alternative terminating node.