Multi-party digital intercommunication systems and associated methods of operation

A method for handing over a right to speak of in a multi-party conversation in a digital intercommunication system, comprising of:

• (1) broadcasting a paging request from a paging subscriber to other subscribers on a control frequency of the digital intercommunication system, the paging request including priority definition information;
• (2) detecting the paging request by the paged subscribers on the control frequency and in response, sending paging acknowledgement to the paging subscriber on the control frequency, the paging acknowledgement including a measurement report of traffic frequency bands, subscriber priority acknowledgement, and receiving signal quality;
• (3) receiving the paging acknowledgement, selecting a time slot on a traffic frequency band as a designated physical channel to setup the call, and broadcasting the selected time slot to the paged subscribers;
• (4) after call setup, beginning the multi-party conversation via the designated physical channel with the paging subscriber being a transmitting subscriber;
• (5) broadcasting encoded speech or data from the transmitting subscriber to the other subscribers via a Forward Traffic Channel (FTCH) and via a Forwards Fast Instruction Channel (FFICH);
• (6) broadcasting a reservation request via a Backward Slow Instruction Channel (BSICH) from one of the other subscribers to the transmitting subscriber to reserve the right to speak;
• (7) monitoring the BSICH at the transmitting subscriber and determining whether to hand over the right to speak according to the received reservation request;
• (8) if there is a hand over of the right to speak, repeating operations (6) and (7);
• if there is reservation request received at the transmitting subscriber, stopping sending messages from the transmitting subscriber, releasing the designated physical channel and terminating the multi-party conversation.