Method and apparatus for asymmetric communication of compressed speech

A method for processing audio information, said method comprising the steps of:

• receiving at a first input an audio signal;
• processing said audio signal by an encoder section to generate a succession of compressed audio data frames, said encoder section including at least one encoder unit;
• providing a decoder section having a plurality of decoder units, each decoder unit being capable of receiving compressed audio signal frames and generating an audio signal, said decoder section including more decoder units than encoder units;
• providing a switch capable of acquiring a plurality of decoder unit selection positions, in each decoder unit selection position said switch directing data containing audio information to a selected one of said decoder units;
• receiving a control signal indicative of a decode unit to be enabled for processing incoming compressed audio signal frames;
• setting said switch at a position in accordance with said control signal.

A method for configuring two compressed speech communication terminals for permitting establishment of a call session between the communication terminals, each compressed speech communication terminal comprising a vocoder that includes:

• an encoder section for generating compressed audio data frames;
• a decoder section, said decoder section including a plurality of decoder units;
• at least one of said two compressed speech communication terminals further including a decoder section having more decoder units than encoder units;
• said method comprising the step of enabling a selected decoder unit in each communication terminal that supports the compressed audio data frames generated by the encoder section of the other communication terminal.