information to the context servers for storage otherwise the network control element may omit the broadcasting fig5 is a flowchart of a method for retrieving context information according to an embodiment of the present invention a context server may await 510 a request from a network control element the request from the control element may be broadcast to all the context servers to a subset of the servers or sent to one server to enhance high speed performance the context server need not acknowledge the request if the request is to store 520 the call signal just processed by the network control element the context server may store 530 the timestamp i e the time that the network control element received the call signal from a telecommunication switch and the call signal which includes the data key in one embodiment the context server may generate additional context information associated with the call signal and store that information for later use by the network control elements if the request is to retrieve 520 context information about the call signal currently received by the network control element the context server may check 540 previously processed call signals that are stored in the server database to identify those having the same data key as the request if the context server has more than one previously processed call signal that matches the data key of the current call signal the context server may retrieve 550 context information about the most recent of the previously processed call signals that match if the context server only has one match context information about that.