The present invention provides a telephony-accessed application system for
providing a service, such as voicemail, in accordance with a switching
interface such as in the ITU-T H.323 or IETF SIP recommendation. Queuing
functionality is made possible in a system which employs a switch which
does not support queuing. The queuing functionality is made possible by a
queue means which is provided within an application means, i.e. the
voicemail means itself. Consequently, the switch itself is relieved of
the burden of having to keep track of the exact status of each of its
ports at all times. The high-level queuing is performed at a logical
level rather than at the physical level, and therefore affords a cleaner
interface. Furthermore, the implementation of the queuing functions in
the terminating application means allows for the use of a wider variety
of intermediate switch means in a network.