Apparatus and method for implementing a packet based teleconference bridge
AssigneeMotorola, Inc.
InventorsMansour Tahernezhaadi, Michael J. Kirk
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for effecting multi-party teleconferencing that avoids the need for tandem vocoding of packet based information from conference call participants. In particular, the teleconferencing bridge infrastructure utilizes packet tagging of encoded packets with a tag as well as adaptive scheduling of bandwidth to transmit packet based information to the end user call participants. Decoding is accomplished at each end user based on information included within the tag such that an appropriate decoding algorithm is selected for the packet-based audio information thereby avoiding tandem vocoding.
Claims31
An apparatus for multi-party communication in a communication system comprising:
- a multi-party communication device configured to accept a plurality of types of communication signals from multiple parties via a transport network, the multi-party communication bridge including:
- one or more tagging devices that are each configured to respectively tag incoming communication signals with predetermined information particular to each signal;
- and
- a controller configured to combine the tagged output signals from the one or more tagging devices into data packet signals and transmit the data packet signals to each of the multiple parties via the transport network.
A method for multi-party conferencing in a communication network, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving a plurality of types of communication signals within a multi-party communication infrastructure from multiple parties via a transport network in communication with the infrastructure;
- tagging received communication signal with a corresponding tag that includes predetermined information particular to each signal;
- combining the tagged output signals into a single data packet;
- and
- transmitting the single data packet to the multiple parties over the transport network to effect a multi-party communication session.
The method according to claim 18, wherein a first type of signals of the plurality of types of signals are packet based signals and a second type of signals of the plurality of signals are pulse code modulated signals;
- and the method further comprises the steps of:
- decoding the received pulse code modulated signals;
- summing the decoded pulse code modulated signals to achieve a single combined signal;
- and
- encoding the single combined signal for packet based transmission and tagging the resulting encoded single combined signal with predetermined information particular to the encoded single combined signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.