Method, system, and computer program product for managing routing servers and services

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for routing network traffic (calls in a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)), which expands the capabilities of existing systems by providing faster and more efficient direction of network traffic, is disclosed. A routing management system includes a routing manager which maintains a list of local routes, establishes and manages connections to the routing server(s), exports routes to the routing server(s), imports disseminated routes from the routing server(s), obtains static global and dynamic routes from the routing server(s), caches those routes for future use, finds all matching routes for a particular number dialed by the user, and prioritizing those routes based on timing, access and ordering information. An additional embodiment contains at least one routing server which provides look-up services for gateway server(s), allows export of local routes from gateway server(s), and distributes translation data, and at least one gateway server which handles calls received on either the Internet protocol (IP) or traditional telephony networks. The gateway server bridges calls between the different kinds of networks, interacts with users, interfaces with the routing system.