Multi-speaker conferencing over narrowband channels

A process of facilitating multispeaker conferencing for users of a digitally encoded voice system, wherein each of said users is capable of outputting encoded digital voice signals in a bit stream at a system data rate, wherein said process comprises the steps of:

• counting a number of active conferees to produce thereby a count number N, said active conferees being users of said digitally encoded voice system which are speaking when said counting step is performed;
• compressing each of the encoded digital voice signals produced by said active conferees down to a plurality of compressed digital signals which each have a compressed data rate, wherein said digitally encoded voice system used in said process comprises a set of vocoders which operate over a narrowband with said system data rate ranging substantially between 2.4 and 32.0 kb/s, and wherein said counting and compressing steps are performed using a microprocessor which is electrically connected to each of said users of said digitally encoded voice system using telephone lines and a plurality of modem units, wherein said microprocessor is programmed to perform as a conferencing bridge and to perform said counting compressing steps, wherein
• said compressing step comprises digitally compressing each of said encoded digital voice signals into said compressed digital signals such that their compressed data rate has a bit rate given by SDR/N, where SDR is the system data rate, and N is the number of active conferees;
• a digital signal summation step, in which the compressed digital signals rae combined to output thereby a combined compressed digital signal which is transmitted to said users at the system data rate;
• and
• decoding said combined compressed digital signal to output thereby an artificial voice signal to said users of the digitally encoded voice system, wherein said artificial voice signal represents voices of all the active conferees which are speaking.

A system for facilitating multispeaker conferencing for users of a digitally encoded voice system, wherein each of said users is capable of outputting encoded digital voice signal in a bit stream at a system data rate, wherein said system comprises:

• a means for counting a number of active conferees to produce thereby a count number N, said active conferees being users of said digitally encoded voice system which are actually speaking;
• a means for compressing each of the encoded digital voice signals produced by said active conferees down to a plurality of compressed digital signals which each have a compressed data rate;
• wherein said counting and compressing means comprises a microprocessor which is electrically connected to each of said users of said digitally encoded voice system using telephone lines and a plurality of modem units, wherein said microprocessor is programmed to perform as a conferencing bridge and to perform said counting and compressing, wherein said compressing means digitally compresses each of said encoded digital voice signals into said compressed digital signals such that their compressed data rate has a bit rate given by SDR/N, where SDR is the system data rate, and N is the number of active conferees;
• a means for a digital signal summation in which the compressed digital signals are combined to output thereby a combined compressed digital signal which is sent back to said users at the system data rate;
• and
• a means for decoding the combined compressed digital signal to output thereby an artificial voice signal to said users of the digitally encoded voice system, wherein said artificial voice signal represents voices of all the active conferees which are speaking.

A process for facilitating multispeaker conferencing for users of a digitally encoded voice system, wherein each of said users is capable of outputting encoded digital voice signals in a bit stream at a system data rate, wherein said process comprises the steps of:

• counting a number of active conferees to produce thereby a count number N, said active conferees being users of said digitally encoded voice system which are speaking when said counting step is performed;
• compressing each of the encoded digital voice signals produced by said active conferees down to a plurality of compressed digital signals which each have a compressed data rate, wherein said counting and compressing steps are performed using a microprocessor which is electrically connected to each of said users of said digitally encoded voice system, wherein said microprocessor is programmed to perform as a conferencing bridge and to perform said counting and compressing steps, wherein said compressing step comprises digitally compressing each of said encoded digital voice signals into said compressed digital signals such that their compressed data rate has a bit rate give by SDR/N, where SDR is the system data rate, and N is the number of active conferees;
• a digital signal summation step, in which the compressed digital signals are combined to output thereby a combined compressed digital signal which is transmitted to said users at the system data rate;
• and
• decoding said combined compressed digital signal to output thereby an artificial voice signal to said users of the digitally encoded voice system, wherein said artificial voice signal represents voices of all the active conferees which are speaking.