For use in a telecommunication node, a scalable call-processing system is provided to process signaling messages in a distributed processing environment. The call-processing system includes: (i) processing nodes operable to process signaling messages, each of the processing nodes configured to monitor a respective loading factor and produce respective real-time loading information; (ii) resource server nodes operable to provide resources to the processing nodes, each of the resource server nodes configured to monitor a respective loading factor and produce respective real-time loading information; and a load-sharing manager connected to receive the real-time loading information from each of the processing nodes and each of the resource server nodes, the load-sharing manager further connected to receive the signaling messages and distribute the signaling messages to the processing nodes for processing using the resource server nodes based on load-sharing rules generated using programmable policies and the real-time loading information.