Methods and apparatus for deriving and/or generating, user presence information from communication signals monitored by a SBC or PRI Gateway and aggregating and/or distributing the user presence information. An exemplary method embodiment includes the steps of storing a plurality of user profile records, each of the user profile records mapping contact information for a user to one or more user identifiers corresponding to the user; receiving first signaling information; determining a first user corresponding to the first signaling information by comparing at least a first portion of the information contained in the first signaling information to at least a first portion of the information contained in the plurality of user profiles; and generating presence status information for the first user and communicating the first presence status information to a presence server as presence status information corresponding to a first user identifier, said first user identifier corresponding to said first user.

Methods for handling traffic between a first network including a virtual communication platform and a second network, such as a circuit-switched network, include inserting customer identifiers into data packets. For traffic sent to the second network, the packets with the identifiers are transmitted to a trunking service that uses the identifier to determine one or more applicable service attributes for handling the data contained within the packets. For data traffic received from the second network, the virtual communication platform uses the identifiers to determine a destination, such as an endpoint device, for the traffic within the first network.

Arrangements (e.g., apparatus, method, machine-readable medium, chipset, etc.) guiding selection of a gateway to which to present a hand-off request for an outgoing communication session, including: referencing a gateway database storing gateway data for gateways of plural communication carriers, respectively, the gateway data of each subject gateway including an IP address and at least one connection efficiency value for the subject gateway; and considering connection efficiency values of ones of the gateways of the plural communication carriers in the gateway database according to a predetermined selection criteria, to form an output instruction which guides selection of at least one gateway to which to present the hand-off request.

A method for routing calls between a third party telecommunications device (TD) and a subscriber TD associated with a primary service and a second line service (SLS) involves associating the SLS number of the subscriber, the primary number of the subscriber and the primary number of a third party via a common relationship number. Calls directed from a third party to the SLS number of a subscriber are routed to an SLS platform and redirected to the subscriber TD. Calls directed from the subscriber TD to the third party use the relationship number to route the call to the SLS platform. The combination of the primary service number and the relationship number identifies the third party number for call completion. Calls can be directed to and from an SLS number of a subscriber TD using a combination of protocols such as ISUP, CAP and SIP.

The present invention discloses numerous implementations for IP-based call processing systems that can selectively control an outgoing call initiated by a source device to a destination device. The call processing system causes a Service Switching Point (SSP) associated with the source device to initiate a media connection between the IP-based call processing system and the source device. The call processing system further causes initiation of a call feature for the outgoing call using the media connection with the source device. The call feature may include a call restriction feature, a call feature for conveying an audio element to the source device, a call record feature and a call feature for conveying information to the source device. The call processing system further causes establishment of a media connection between the source and the destination devices.

A user authentication system that analyzes call forwarding information obtained from telecommunication networks, such as through the use of Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) protocols, to detect the possibility of fraud. In response to a request to access a network-accessible service, the system performs an initial authentication of provided user account credentials. The system then obtains a telecommunication subscriber identifier that is associated with the user account. Prior to performing additional device-based user authentication, the system obtains call forwarding information for the user. The obtained call forwarding information is then evaluated for potentially fraudulent call forwarding configurations. For example, call forwarding to certain call forwarding numbers, or the use of different call forwarding types, may be indicative of fraud intended to undermine further user authentication.

Methods for handling traffic between a first network including a virtual communication platform and a second network, such as a circuit-switched network, include inserting customer identifiers into data packets. For traffic sent to the second network, the packets with the identifiers are transmitted to a trunking service that uses the identifier to determine one or more applicable service attributes for handling the data contained within the packets. For data traffic received from the second network, the virtual communication platform uses the identifiers to determine a destination, such as an endpoint device, for the traffic within the first network.

A method for routing calls between a third party telecommunications device (TD) and a subscriber TD associated with a primary service and a second line service (SLS) involves associating the SLS number of the subscriber, the primary number of the subscriber and the primary number of a third party via a common relationship number. Calls directed from a third party to the SLS number of a subscriber are routed to an SLS platform and redirected to the subscriber TD. Calls directed from the subscriber TD to the third party use the relationship number to route the call to the SLS platform. The combination of the primary service number and the relationship number identifies the third party number for call completion. Calls can be directed to and from an SLS number of a subscriber TD using a combination of protocols such as ISUP, CAP and SIP.

A message generating arrangement determines whether a first communication terminal of a communication system can participate, by means of packet-switching network elements of the communication system, in a communication link in which a second communication terminal of the communication system is participating by means of circuit-switching network elements of the communication system, and generates a message on the basis of the result of the determination.

A user authentication system that analyzes call forwarding information obtained from telecommunication networks, such as through the use of Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) protocols, to detect the possibility of fraud. In response to a request to access a network-accessible service, the system performs an initial authentication of provided user account credentials. The system then obtains a telecommunication subscriber identifier that is associated with the user account. Prior to performing additional device-based user authentication, the system obtains call forwarding information for the user. The obtained call forwarding information is then evaluated for potentially fraudulent call forwarding configurations. For example, call forwarding to certain call forwarding numbers, or the use of different call forwarding types, may be indicative of fraud intended to undermine further user authentication.