Conferencing system for distributed switching network

A method for providing conference calls among groups of terminals in a digital telephone switching system, said telephone switching system having a plurality of switch elements in a multistage arrangement for interconnecting said terminals via communications links which link said switch elements, each switch element having a summing device, said method comprising the steps of:

• setting a plurality of first paths for carrying speech data via one or more of said switch elements in the multistage arrangement from each one of said terminals in a group toward a designated bridge port in one of said switch elements;
• enabling the summing device in a switch element wherein two or more first paths from said terminals towards said designated bridge port intersect in said switch element, said summing device summing the data carried in said first paths towards said bridge port such that at the one said switch element having said bridge port the sum of all speech data corresponding to said terminals is available;
• and
• assigning a second path for carrying data from said bridge port towards each of said terminals said second path capable of routing the sum of all speech data.

A conferencing system for providing a plurality of conference calls among groups of addressable locations in a digital telephone switching system, said conferencing system comprising:

• a plurality of switch elements in a multistage arrangement, each switch element having a summing device, for interconnecting said addressable locations via communication links;
• means capable of setting a plurality of first paths for carrying speech data via said switch elements from each one of said addressable locations towards a designated bridge port by selectively assigning a first memory location in each switch element in each first path for writing and reading data carried in each said first path;
• means for enabling a summing device in each intersecting switch element wherein two or more first paths from said addressable locations to said designated bridge port intersect, said summing device in each of said intersecting switch elements capable of summing the data carried in said first paths and writing and reading the sum in the first memory location of said intersecting switch element such that said bridge port is capable of receiving the total sum of all data originated from said addressable locations;
• and
• means capable of setting a second path for carrying data via said switch elements from said designated bridge port to each one of said addressable locations by selectively assigning a second memory location in each switch element in each second path for writing and reading said total sum of all data carried in each said second path.

A method for providing a plurality of conference calls among groups of terminals in a digital telephone switching system, said telephone switching system having a plurality of switch elements in a multistage arrangement for interconnecting said terminals via communications links comprising the steps of:

• allocating a predetermined number of bridge ports within a predetermined number of said switch elements in the multistage arrangement;
• setting, for each group of the groups of terminals, a first path for carrying data via one or more of said predetermined switch elements from each one of said terminals in the group towards a designated bridge port by selectively assigning a first memory location in each switch element in each first path for writing and reading data carried in each said first path;
• enabling a summing device in each switch element wherein two or more first paths from said addressable locations to said designated bridge port intersect;
• summing the data carried in said first paths and writing and reading the sum in the first memory location of said switch element wherein two or more first paths intersect such that said bridge port is capable of receiving the total sum of all data originated from said terminals;
• and
• setting a second path via said switch elements for carrying said total sum of all data from said designated bridge port to each one of said terminals by selectively assigning a second memory location in each switch element in each second path for writing and reading said total sum of all data carried in each said second path.