# US 5,708,962 A · Method of reconfiguring a distributed communication system using allocation loading level

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- Number: US 5,708,962 A
- Document ID: US5708962A
- Status: Granted
- Kind: A
- Application number: 08/378,758
- Filed: 1995-01-26
- Granted: 1998-01-13
- Earliest claimed: 1995-01-26
- Assignees: Motorola, Inc.
- Inventors: John B. MacIntyre; Kristin J. Cramer; Kevin L. Malm; Lee J. Kilayko-Domingo
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US5708962A

## CPC

- H04L 12/40169: {Flexible bus arrangements (arrangements for maintenance or administration involving management of faults; events, alarms H04L41/06; automatic restoration of network faults H04L41/0654)}
- H04B 1/60: Supervising unattended repeaters
- H04L 12/403: with centralised control, e.g. polling
- H04L 69/40: for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection (management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06)
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)
- H04B: TRANSMISSION

## Abstract

The present invention encompasses a method of reconfiguring a distributed communication system (100). A typical distributed communication system (100) includes a plurality of repeaters (102-106) connected via a LAN (108, 110). When a repeater that is acting as an active master (104) receives a Trunking Status Pulse (118), the active master (104) will compare the status information in the received TSP (118) with the present status information to determine which active master is the favorable active master. The active master with the favorable present resource allocation loading level will continue to operate as the active master, while the active with the least favorable present resource allocation loading level will relinquish control as an active master.

## Claims

### Claim 1

In a distributed communication system that includes a plurality of repeaters for facilitating communications throughout the distributed communication system, at least two of the plurality of repeaters constituting active masters responsible for allocating a plurality of communication resources, the plurality of repeaters being coupled via a local area network (LAN), a method of reconfiguring the distributed communication system, the method comprising:
identifying the at least two of the plurality of repeaters, to produce an identified first active master and an identified second active master;
at the identified first and second active master, providing status information indicative of its present resource allocation loading level;
comparing, at a detecting one of the identified first active master and the identified second active master, received status information with status information generated by the detecting active master; and
selecting, using at least the status information, from among the identified first and second active master, an active master having a favorable present resource allocation loading level.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying comprises the step of receiving, at at least one of the identified first active master and the identified second active master, unexpected status information.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the step of providing comprises the step of providing a call activity record.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, wherein the step of providing the call activity record comprises the step of providing a total number of calls.

### Claim 5 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, wherein the step of providing the call activity record comprises the step of providing at least a first call type.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, wherein the step of providing at least a first call type comprises the step of providing an emergency call identifier.

### Claim 7 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, wherein the step of providing at least a first call type comprises the step of providing a priority call identifier.

### Claim 8 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, wherein the step of providing the call activity record comprises the step of providing a trunking mode identifier.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein the step of providing a trunking mode identifier comprises the step of providing a wide-area trunking mode identifier.

### Claim 10 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, wherein the step of providing the call activity record comprises the step of providing an indication of a number of repeaters served.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the step of comparing comprises the step of comparing a total number of active calls.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the step of comparing comprises the step of comparing a predetermined ranking of call types.