System And Methods For Queueing And Moderating Group Talk

• US 20100029220A1
• Filed: 10/09/2009
• Published: 02/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Plestid, Trevor, Estable, Luis Pablo
• Granted Patent: US 8,380,237 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/90.200
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services

Abstract

Systems of methods for performing queued and moderated talk groups in a system featuring network provided half duplex communications talk group sessions. For queuing, rather than dropping a talk request from a user which is listening, the request is forwarded and maintained in a list which is the used to grant access to the talk channel. For moderated talk groups, a wireless device is designated to be a moderator network device. The requests for the talk channel are then forwarded to the moderator network device. The moderator network device is equipped with functionality allowing a user of the device to select the order in which devices are granted the talk channel.

Claims

1. A method for use in performing talk order control over a talk group of wireless communication devices operating in a group talk session in a wireless communication network, wherein in the group talk session a single wireless device is given a transmit capability while all other devices have a receive capability, the method comprising the acts of:

providing, to at least one of the wireless devices in the talk group, a user interface which includes a display and a talk button for participation in the group talk session;

receiving, at the wireless device, a moderator capability for moderating the group talk session;

after receiving the moderator capability for moderating the group talk session;

receiving, at the wireless device, on an ongoing basis during the group talk session, requests for the transmit capability from the wireless devices;

maintaining, on an ongoing basis during the group talk session, a record of the received requests that are outstanding; and

granting, by the wireless device, on an ongoing basis during the group talk session, requests for the transmit capability based on the record of the received requests that are outstanding.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the acts of:

receiving, via the user interface, a user selection of one of the received requests that are outstanding; and

granting, from the wireless device, one of the received requests for the transmit capability in response to the receiving the selected request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of receiving the moderator capability is based on a designation in a group list for the talk group.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of granting comprises the further act of sending, via the wireless network, a clear-to-talk message for the wireless device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying, in the display, a list of identifiers of the wireless devices that have transmitted the requests for the transmit capability;

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the record of the received requests that are outstanding comprises a list of requests that are outstanding arranged in an order they were received, and wherein the requests for transmit capability are granted from oldest to newest.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

counting a number of requests received from each wireless device; and

re-prioritizing the granting of the requests on the basis of the number of requests received from each device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining privilege information for each wireless device of the talk group; and

receiving talk group control messages from the wireless devices and processing the messages in accordance with the privilege information.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the privilege information comprises an indication of whether at least one of the following privileges is accorded a given wireless device:

moderator capability;

moderator meta-group capability;

private messaging within group;

broadcast messaging;

talk channel request access; and

listen-only access.

10. The method of claim 1, implemented using one of CDMA-based communications, 802.11-based communications, iDEN, GPRS, Bluetooth, UMTS, PoC (push-to-talk over cellular).

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the group talk session comprises a Push-to-talk-over Cellular (PoC) session.

12. A computer readable medium having processor-executable instructions stored thereon for a wireless communication device, for performing talk order control over a talk group of wireless communication devices operating in a group talk session in a wireless communication network, wherein in the group talk session a single wireless device is given a transmit capability while all other devices have a receive capability, the processor-executable instructions for the wireless communication device being configured to receive a moderator capability for moderating the group talk session and, after receiving the moderator capability for moderating the group talk session, receive, on an ongoing basis during the group talk session, requests for the transmit capability from the wireless devices;

maintain, on an ongoing basis during the group talk session, a record of the received requests that are outstanding; and

grant, on an ongoing basis during the group talk session, requests for the transmit capability based on the record of the received requests that are outstanding.

13. The computer readable medium having the processor-executable instructions of claim 12 which are further configured to receive, via a user interface, a user selection of one of the received requests that are outstanding;

and grant one of the received requests for the transmit capability in response to the receiving the selected request.

14. The computer readable medium having the processor-executable instructions of claim 12 which are further configured to receive the moderator capability based on a designation in a group list for the talk group.

15. The computer readable medium having the processor-executable instructions of claim 12 which are further configured to grant by sending, via the wireless network, a clear-to-talk message for the wireless device.

16. The computer readable medium having the processor-executable instructions of claim 12 which are further configured to cause a list of identifiers of the wireless devices that have transmitted the requests for the transmit capability to be displayed in a display.

17. A wireless communication device configured to participate in a network-delivered push-to-talk communications session with a plurality of wireless devices via a wireless communication network, the wireless communication device comprising:

a processing element;

a user interface which includes a display and a talk button for participation in communication sessions in the wireless network;

a message reception element coupled to the processing element and configured to receive messages via the wireless network;

a message transmission element coupled to the processing element and configured to transmit messages via the wireless network;

the processing element being operative to;

receive, via the wireless network, a moderator capability for moderating the group talk session;

after receiving the moderator capability for moderating the group talk session;

receive, on an ongoing basis during the group talk session, requests for the transmit capability from the wireless devices;

maintain, on an ongoing basis during the group talk session, a record of the received requests that are outstanding; and

grant, on an ongoing basis during the group talk session, requests for the transmit capability based on the record of the received requests that are outstanding.

18. The wireless communication device of claim 17, wherein the processing element is further configured to:

receive, via the user interface, a user selection of one of the received requests that are outstanding; and

grant one of the received requests for the transmit capability in response to the receiving the selected request.

19. The wireless communication device of claim 17, wherein the processing element is further configured to receive the moderator capability based on a designation in a group list for the talk group.

20. The wireless communication device of claim 17, wherein the processing element is further configured to grant by sending, via the wireless network, a clear-to-talk message for the wireless device.

21. The wireless communication device of claim 17, wherein the processing element is further configured to cause a list of identifiers of the wireless devices that have transmitted the requests for the transmit capability to be displayed in the display.

22. The wireless communication device of claim 17, wherein the processing element is further configured to grant the transmit capability based on the order in which the requests are received.

23. The wireless communication device of claim 17, wherein the group talk session comprises a Push-to-talk-over Cellular (PoC) session.