link connecting the flexible routing node 302 and the modified message 39 s destination node is located on dcm 336 consequently the modified signaling message packet is internally routed across the imt bus 304 to dcm 336 where it is received by the hmcg process 340 hmcg process 340 passes the modified message packet into the i o queue 341 while acknowledging this outbound packet 39 s contribution to link congestion eventually the modified message packet is passed from the i o queue 341 and on to ip process 342 where the ss7 packet is encapsulated within an ip routing envelope the ip encapsulated ss7 packet is then transmitted into the associated ip network 350 via the ip signaling link 344 in this example the ip encapsulated ss7 packet is addressed and consequently routed through the ip network 350 to the final destination hlr c 356 the opc of the packet is changed to the opc of flexible routing node 302 turning now to fig7 the example message flow scenario presented in this diagram illustrates the case where an initial g flex u2122 database lookup fails to find an imsi or msisdn match and hence a secondary or default gtt database search is required the path of a typical hlr bound ss7 signaling message is traced from the gmsc 348 through the flexible routing node 302 and ultimately to the destination hlr b 354 once again the signaling message pathway is indicated by a dashed line beginning at the gmsc node 348 a signaling message is formulated and transmitted to the flexible routing node 302 via the ss7 communication link 320 the relevant data content of this originating signaling message is shown in fig1.