Distributed control of a push-to-talk session

• US 10,327,113 B2
• Filed: 07/17/2018
• Issued: 06/18/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Barrett, Stephen John, Allen, Andrew Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): West, Lewis G
• Application Number:
  US16/037,820
• Publication Number:
  US 20190014447A1
• Time in Patent Office: 336 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4046 with distributed floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4053 without floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4061 Push-to services, e.g. push-to-talk or push-to-video
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services

Abstract

In some examples, a first push-to-talk (PTT) client that has access to a wide area network (WAN) performs distributed control for a PTT session in conjunction with distributed control for the PTT session performed by another PTT client in the PTT session, the distributed control by the first PTT client performed without use of any PTT server.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

performing, by a first push-to-talk (PTT) client that has access to a wide area network (WAN), distributed control for a PTT session in conjunction with distributed control for the PTT session performed by another PTT client in the PTT session, the distributed control by the first PTT client performed without use of any PTT server;

maintaining, by the first PTT client, a queue of information relating to floor requests received from other PTT clients in a PTT group, the queue maintained by the first PTT client being the same as queues of the other PTT clients in the PTT group;

detecting, by the first PTT client, that no traffic data has been received from a further PTT client associated with a floor request having a highest priority for a specified time period; and

in response to the detecting, promoting a priority of a floor request having a next highest priority in the queue.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the distributed control performed by the first PTT client is selected from among floor control, control of the PTT session, and management of traffic data of multiple PTT clients for the PTT session.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, in the queue maintained by the first PTT client, priority indications associated with the floor requests, the priority indications indicating relative priorities of the floor requests;

using, by the first PTT client, the priority indications to determine whether the first PTT client has a floor in the PTT session.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

rebuilding, by the first PTT client, the queue of floor requests responsive to a condition indicating that connection to at least one PTT client in the PTT group has been lost due to loss of access to the WAN.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the rebuilding is in response to one of:

detecting that at least one PTT client associated with a floor request in the queue has failed to take a floor in the PTT session, or

receiving, by the first PTT client from another PTT client, an indication of loss of access to the WAN.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by the first PTT client, transmission of a group call message by another PTT client in a PTT group; and

deciding, by the first PTT client, to not transmit the group call message in response to the detecting.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating, by the first PTT client, a time offset based on an identifier associated with the first PTT client, wherein the time offset calculated by the first PTT client is different from a time offset calculated by a second PTT client in the PTT group; and

in response to receiving a Group Call Probe message from another PTT client, transmitting, by the first PTT client, a Group Call Announcement message after waiting the time offset calculated by the first PTT client.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to detecting concurrent receipt, in the PTT session, of first traffic data transmitted by a second PTT client and second traffic data transmitted by a third PTT client,

discarding, by the first PTT client, the first traffic data, and

outputting the second traffic data at the first PTT client.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the discarding of the first traffic data is in response to determining that the first traffic data includes an identification that is not an identification of a current floor holder.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the discarding of the first traffic data is in response to determining that the first traffic data is from the second PTT client that is associated with a lower priority than a priority associated with the third PTT client.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by the first PTT client that is transmitting first traffic data in the PTT session, concurrent receipt of second traffic data transmitted by a second PTT client in the PTT session;

determining, by the first PTT client, that the first PTT client is associated with a lower priority than a priority of the second PTT client; and

continuing, by the first PTT client, to transmit the first traffic data until expiration of a specified time interval.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

causing synchronization, by the first PTT client, of the queue at the first PTT client with a queue containing information relating to floor requests at a second PTT client.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the causing of the synchronization comprises:

detecting, by the first PTT client, a condition indicating that plural PTT clients have un-synchronized floor control information; and

in response to the detecting, transmitting, by the first PTT client, an indication to the other PTT clients to delete or mark as invalid the queues containing information relating to floor requests at the other PTT clients, and to re-transmit floor requests by the other PTT clients.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the detecting comprises one of:

detecting, by the first PTT client, restoration of access to the WAN after access to the WAN has been lost, or

detecting, by the first PTT client, concurrent receipt of traffic data for the PTT session from at least two PTT clients.

15. A method comprising:

performing, by a first push-to-talk (PTT) client that has access to a wide area network (WAN), distributed control for a PTT session in conjunction with distributed control for the PTT session performed by another PTT client in the PTT session, the distributed control by the first PTT client performed without use of any PTT server;

maintaining, by the first PTT client, a queue of information relating to floor requests received from other PTT clients in a PTT group, the queue maintained by the first PTT client being the same as queues of the other PTT clients in the PTT group; and

for at least two floor requests in the queue associated with priority indications indicating a same priority, ranking the at least two floor requests using further indications associated with the at least two floor requests.

16. A first push-to-talk (PTT) client comprising:

a communication interface to communicate wirelessly with other PTT clients in a PTT session; and

at least one processor configured to;

perform, while the first PTT client has access to a wide area network (WAN), distributed control for the PTT session in conjunction with distributed control for the PTT session performed by another PTT client in the PTT session, the distributed control by the first PTT client performed without use of any PTT server;

maintain a queue of information relating to floor requests received from other PTT clients in a PTT group, the queue maintained by the first PTT client being the same as queues of the other PTT clients in the PTT group;

detect that no traffic data has been received from a second PTT client associated with a floor request having a highest priority for a specified time period; and

in response to the detecting, promote a priority of a floor request having a next highest priority in the queue.

17. The first PTT client of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is configured to further perform distributed control for a PTT session when the first PTT client is without access to the WAN.

18. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions that upon execution causing a first push-to-talk (PTT) client to:

perform, while the first PTT client has access to a wide area network (WAN), distributed control for a PTT session in conjunction with distributed control for the PTT session performed by another PTT client in the PTT session, the distributed control by the first PTT client performed without use of any PTT server;

maintain a queue of information relating to floor requests received from other PTT clients in a PTT group, the queue maintained by the first PTT client being the same as queues of the other PTT clients in the PTT group;

detect that no traffic data has been received from a second PTT client associated with a floor request having a highest priority for a specified time period; and

in response to the detecting, promote a priority of a floor request having a next highest priority in the queue.