Method and system for facilitating increased call traffic by switching to a low bandwidth encoder in a public emergency mode

In an internet telephony machine receiving a plurality of input media streams and encoding each of said input media streams according to a predetermined encoding process so as to produce for each input media stream an encoded media stream at a predetermined output rate, said internet telephony machine outputting said encoded media streams into a packet switched network, a method comprising, in combination:

• receiving emergency-indicia indicative of a public emergency, wherein receiving said emergency-indicia comprises detecting said public emergency, and wherein said public emergency comprises a natural disaster selected from the group consisting of an earthquake, a flood, a typhoon, a hurricane, a tornado, a blizzard, and a fire;
• and
• responsively changing said predetermined encoding process so as to lower said predetermined output rate per media stream,
• whereby a lower output rate per media stream may facilitate transmission of an increased number of media streams in said packet switched network.

In an internet telephony machine receiving a plurality of input media streams and encoding each of said input media streams according to a predetermined encoding process so as to produce for each input media stream an encoded media stream at a predetermined output rate, said internet telephony machine outputting said encoded media streams into a packet switched network, a method comprising, in combination:

• receiving emergency-indicia indicative of a public emergency, wherein receiving said emergency-indicia comprises receiving a control signal from a management system indicating that there is or may be a natural disaster;
• and
• responsively changing said predetermined encoding process so as to lower said predetermined output rate per media stream,
• whereby a lower output rate per media stream may facilitate transmission of an increased number of media streams in said packet switched network.

An internet telephony machine comprising an input interface, a processor and an output interface,

• said input interface receiving a number of input media streams;
• said processor encoding each of said input media streams according to a predetermined encoding process, thereby producing for each input media stream a corresponding output media stream at an output rate;
• said output interface transmitting into a packet switched network the output media streams corresponding to a plurality of said input media streams;
• said machine receiving emergency-indicia indicative of a natural disaster and responsively changing said predetermined encoding process so as to lower said output rate for each of a plurality of said input media streams.

In an internet telephony machine that outputs packets for receipt by a downstream aggregation point, a method for processing data comprising the following steps:

• encoding input media streams at a first encoding rate at said internet telephony machine in the absence of a natural disaster, thereby outputting packets from said internet telephony machine at a first packet rate;
• and
• changing said encoding of said input media streams from said first encoding rate to a second encoding rate during a natural disaster, and thereby outputting packets from said internet telephony machine at a second packet rate, said second packet rate being lower than said first packet rate,
• whereby congestion at said downstream aggregation point may be reduced during the natural disaster.

A gateway for internet telephony with natural disaster related congestion control for a downstream aggregation point, comprising:

• a central processing unit normally encoding an input media stream at a first encoding rate and generating packets for said downstream aggregation point at a first packet rate;
• a control module in said gateway receiving an emergency-indicia signal indicative of a natural disaster;
• and
• in response to said emergency-indicia signal, said control module adjusting said central processing unit to encode said input media stream at a second encoding rate to thereby generate packets for said downstream aggregation point at a second packet rate, said second packet rate being less than said first packet rate.

An internet telephony routing system with natural disaster related rate control, comprising, in combination:

• a plurality of gateways, each providing an output;
• a downstream router receiving said output from said gateways;
• each of said gateways having a first mode in which said gateway encodes input media streams at a first encoding rate to thereby generate packets for said downstream router at a first packet rate, and a second mode in which said gateway encodes input media streams at a second encoding rate to thereby generate packets for said downstream router at a second packet rate;
• a management system sending emergency-indicia to said gateways in response to a natural disaster;
• and
• said gateways switching from said first mode to said second mode in response to said emergency-indicia,
• whereby the packet load on said downstream router may be reduced.