Push to talk over cellular (half-duplex) to full-duplex voice conferencing

• US 20060229093A1
• Filed: 03/29/2006
• Published: 10/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sonim Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sonim Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Seth, Amitabh, Bhutiani, Gurvesh
• Application Number:
  US11/394,270
• Publication Number:
  US 20060229093A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/518
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• 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

Methods of enabling non-Push-To-Talk (PTT) enabled devices, configured for full-duplex communication, to participate in a PTT-over-Cellular (PoC) session that includes a PTT enabled device, are presented including: detecting start of speech from the non-PTT enabled device; generating a floor control request on behalf of the at least one non-PTT enabled device; negotiating the floor control request based on a device priority; generating a floor control response for the at least one non-PTT enabled device; and generating a first floor control state for the PoC session. In some embodiments, methods further include: buffering RTP packets in a media buffer, the RTP packets corresponding to speech received from the non-PTT enabled device; if the floor control request is granted, sending the RTP packets to the PoC session; and if the floor control request is denied, discarding the RTP packets.

Claims

1. A method of enabling at least one non-Push-To-Talk (PTT) enabled device, the at least one non-PTT enabled device configured for full-duplex communication, to participate in a PTT-over-Cellular (PoC) session wherein the PoC session includes at least one PTT enabled device, comprising the steps of:

detecting a start of speech signal from the at least one non-PTT enabled device;

generating a floor control request on behalf of the at least one non-PTT enabled device;

negotiating the floor control request based on a device priority;

generating a floor control response for the at least one non-PTT enabled device; and

generating a first floor control state for the PoC session.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

buffering a plurality of RTP packets in a media buffer, the plurality of RTP packets corresponding to speech received from the at least one non-PTT enabled device;

if the floor control request is granted, sending the plurality of RTP packets to the PoC session; and

if the floor control request is denied, discarding the plurality of RTP packets.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

detecting an end of speech signal from the at least one non-PTT enabled device;

generating a floor control release on behalf of the at least one non-PTT enabled device; and

generating a second floor control state for the PoC session.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the start of speech signal is selected from the group consisting of:

a signal generated from at least one key selection on the at least one non-PTT enabled device, and a signal generated from a Voice Activity Detection component coupled with the at least one non-PTT enabled device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the device priority is configurable parameter for each of the at least one non-PTT enabled devices and for each of the at least one PTT enabled devices.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the generating a first floor control state for the PoC session includes generating an announcement for the at least one non-PTT enabled device.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the generating a first floor control state for the PoC session includes generating a tone for the at least one non-PTT enabled device.

9. The method of claim 3 wherein the end of speech signal is selected from the group consisting of:

a first signal generated from at least one key selection on the at least one non-PTT enabled device, and a second signal generated from a Voice Activity Detection component coupled with the at least one non-PTT enabled device.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the Voice Activity Detection component includes a timer such that the end of speech signal corresponds to an interval of silence over a selected time interval.

8. The method of 2 wherein the sending the plurality of RTP packets to the PoC session includes performing speech pitch attenuation such that the sending the plurality of RTP packets is synchronized.

11. The method of claim A1 wherein the at least one non-PTT enabled device in the PoC session is detected by a missing PoC Compliant User Agent header in a received SIP signaling message.

12. A system for enabling at least one non-Push-To-Talk (PTT) enabled device, the at least one non-PTT enabled device configured for full-duplex communication, to participate in a PTT-over-Cellular (PoC) session wherein the PoC session includes at least one PTT enabled device comprising:

a full-duplex service configured to provide access to a first communication network for the at least one non-PTT enabled device;

a PoC service configured to provide access to a second communication network for the at least one PTT enabled device;

a media gateway controller for providing an interface for a plurality of control signals to pass between the full-duplex service and the PoC service and for providing a control interface for a media gateway, the media gateway configured to provide and receive a control stream and a media stream; and

a full-duplex PoC proxy coupled with the PoC service for providing an interface for the control stream and the media stream to pass between the full-duplex service and the PoC service.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising a presence server for publishing presence information to the at least one non-PTT enabled device and to the at least one PTT enabled device.

14. The system of claim 13 further comprising a web list management server for providing an interface between the PoC service and a web enabled browser, the web browser configured to publish a plurality of addresses and the presence information associated with the PoC session to the at least one non-PTT enabled device.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the plurality of control signals is transported over SIP/IP.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the media stream is transported over RTP/RTCP.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the full-duplex PoC proxy comprises:

a voice activity detection component for detecting a speech signal from the at least one non-PTT enabled device;

a media buffer for buffering the speech signal;

a tone/announcement generator for providing tones and announcements corresponding to a floor control signal received from the PoC service to the at least one non-PTT enabled device; and

a full-duplex floor control proxy for receiving the floor control signal.

18. The system of claim 17 further comprising a key press operator for detecting a key sequence from the at least one non-PTT enabled device.

19. The system of claim 12 wherein the at least one non-PTT enabled device is selected from the group consisting of:

a SIP phone, a circuit-switched PSTN phone, a circuit-switched mobile phone, and a VOIP phone.

20. The system of claim 14 wherein the presence information for the at least one non-PTT enabled device is provided by the group consisting of:

the media gateway controller over SIP, and the media gateway over RTP/RTCP.

21. The system of claim 20 further comprising a presence server for publishing presence information to the at least one PTT enabled device, wherein the presence server is configured to detect a presence signal from the group consisting of:

a first signal generated from at least one key selection on the at least one non-PTT enabled device during a full-duplex call to an interactive voice response server, and a second signal generated by a home location register/visitor location register on behalf of the at least one non-PTT enabled device.

22. The system of claim 17 further comprising a transcoding processor for converting speech between non-PTT enabled device codec format and PTT-enabled device codec format.

23. The system of claim 21 wherein the at least one key selection by the at least one non-PTT enabled device is detected by the group consisting of:

a PoC media resource function processor over RTP/RTCP, a PoC application server over H.248, and an interactive voice response server over SIP.

24. A method of enabling at least one non-Push-To-Talk (PTT) enabled device, the at least one non-PTT enabled device configured for full-duplex communication, to participate in a PTT-over-Cellular (PoC) session wherein the PoC session includes at least one PTT enabled device, comprising the steps of:

detecting a start of speech signal from the at least one non-PTT enabled device;

buffering a plurality of RTP packets in a media buffer, the plurality of RTP packets corresponding to speech received from the at least one non-PTT enabled device;

generating a floor control request on behalf of the at least one non-PTT enabled device;

negotiating the floor control request based on a device priority;

if the floor control request is granted, sending the plurality of RTP packets to the PoC session;

if the floor control request is denied, discarding the plurality of RTP packets;

generating a floor control response for the at least one non-PTT enabled device;

generating a first floor control state for the PoC session;

detecting an end of speech signal from the at least one non-PTT enabled device;

generating a floor control release on behalf of the at least one non-PTT enabled device; and

generating a second floor control state for the PoC session.