Pathway selection by sending test packets and analysis of diverging sub-pathways

A communication infrastructure, that allows communication pathways to be analyzed and controlled. It consists of packet switched, circuit switched networks, access points, and nodes of which provide sub-pathway characteristics information to end-point devices, when requested. The end-point devices may be PSTN or Internet telephones, personal computers, servers etc., and in accordance with the present invention, send test packets to a destination end-point device, via communication infrastructure, retrieve echo response containing diverging sub-pathway characteristics and analyze the retrieved information. Based upon the analysis of communication pathways, the end-point devices select one or more communication pathways for voice or data packets exchange, automatically or manually based upon user input via user interfaces. Once one or more communication pathways are selected, the end-point devices control the communication pathways by routing the voice or data packets along selected communication pathways. For this, the end-point devices send control commands in the header of each of the voice or data packets and guide the access points and nodes to direct these packets along selected pathways.