Method and system for roaming in a peer to peer network among radio sites having dynamic rest channel base repeater stations

A method of operation of subscriber stations within a distributed peer to peer trunked radio network, the network comprising a plurality of network locations, each network location consisting of a plurality of repeaters in which a dynamically selected one of the repeaters out of the plurality acts as a rest channel repeater for announcing new incoming calls to idling subscriber stations at the respective network location, the method comprising:

• a first subscriber station detecting a broadcast intra-site beacon at the first network location identifying a rest channel associated with a repeater currently acting as the rest channel repeater at the first network location;
• the first subscriber station idling on the identified rest channel and subsequently receiving an inter-site roaming beacon identifying a second repeater at a second network location that is currently acting as a rest channel repeater at the second network location;
• the first subscriber station calculating an expected timing of when one of a second inter-site roaming beacon and a second intra-site beacon is expected to be broadcast by the second repeater at the second network location;
• and
• the first subscriber station tuning to a rest channel associated with the second repeater at the expected timing.

A first repeater at a first radio site within a distributed peer to peer trunked radio network, the network comprising a plurality of radio sites, each radio site consisting of a plurality of repeaters in which a dynamically selected one of the repeaters out of the plurality acts as a rest channel repeater for announcing new incoming calls to idling subscriber stations at the respective radio site, the first repeater comprising:

• a receiver;
• a transmitter;
• a processor;
• and
• a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the first repeater to perform operations comprising:
• at least temporarily act as the rest channel repeater at the first radio site, determining a first timing at which to broadcast an intra-site beacon and a second timing at which to broadcast an inter-site roaming beacon, the intra-site beacon including at least a rest channel identifier indicating a rest channel of the first radio site and the inter-site roaming beacon including at least remote rest channel repeater information identifying a second repeater at a second radio site that is currently acting as a rest channel repeater at the second radio site;
• broadcasting the intra-site beacon at the first timing;
• and
• broadcasting the inter-site roaming beacon at the second timing.

A first subscriber station at a first network location within a distributed peer to peer trunked radio network, the network comprising a plurality of network locations, each network location consisting of a plurality of repeaters in which a dynamically selected one of the repeaters out of the plurality acts as a rest channel repeater for announcing new incoming calls to idling subscriber stations at the respective network location, the first subscriber station comprising:

• a receiver;
• a transmitter;
• a processor;
• and
• a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the first subscriber station to perform operations comprising:
• detect a broadcast intra-site beacon at the first network location identifying a rest channel associated with a repeater currently acting as the rest channel repeater at the first network location;
• idle on the identified rest channel and subsequently receive an inter-site roaming beacon identifying a second repeater at a second network location that is currently acting as a rest channel repeater at the second network location;
• calculate an expected timing of when one of a second inter-site roaming beacon and a second intra-site beacon is expected to be broadcast by the second repeater at the second network location;
• and
• tune to a rest channel associated with the second repeater at the expected timing.