A method is provided for operating a media gateway in a telecommunications system. The gateway provides bearer paths for communication traffic between network segments via contexts. Each context includes a collection of terminations that link the gateway to the network segments and a topology that defines the bearer paths between the terminations within the context. The method includes: receiving a new topology for one of the contexts within the gateway, comparing the received topology to a current topology for the context, based upon the foregoing comparison, determining which terminations within the context are to be disconnected from one another; disconnecting terminations within the context from on&another in accordance with the foregoing determination; comparing the received topology to the current topology for the context; based on the foregoing comparison, determining which terminations within the context are to be connected to one another; and, connecting terminations within the context to one another in accordance with the foregoing determination.