System and method for initiating telecommunications sessions through an electronic mail address

Abstract

A system and method of establishing and controlling a telecommunications or multimedia communications sessions over a conventional call signaling protocol is employed to enable such a communications session to the initiated and managed between participants through translated resource identifiers. The method of establishing and controlling a telecommunications or multimedia communications sessions over a conventional call signaling protocol is employed in one embodiment through the provision of a database which includes resource records linked together by user which include an email address and corresponding URIs, the retrieval of a corresponding URI upon the generation of a session invitation which identifies its target recipient by email address, the transmitting of the session invitation to the retrieved URI, and notifying the target recipient by sending a message to the email address used to generate the session invitation.