METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DUAL/MULTI-WATCH FOR GROUP PTT SERVICES

• US 20100137015A1
• Filed: 12/03/2008
• Published: 06/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Blanco, Alejandro G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,676,243 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/518
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/08 Trunked mobile radio systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

A communication system (100) provides dual-watch and multi-watch capability for group PTT services. Incoming PTT calls are prioritized and played out in accordance with prioritized devices (130). A user of multiple communication devices can hear received audio traffic being played out in accordance with the priority assigned to the group call and the priority assigned to the communication device. Numerous calls can be simultaneously received and managed.

Claims

1. A communication system comprising;

first and second communication devices that have speakers, one of the two devices being a push-to-talk (PTT) device, the first and second communication devices under the control of a single user and communicating over a personal area network (PAN); and

the first and second communication devices providing dual-watch of incoming calls by playing out audio traffic based on a predetermined assigned priority between the first and second communication devices as well as a predetermined call priority.

2. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the first communication device is a radio and the second communication device is a phone, the radio having a PTT voice over internet protocol (VoIP) client running therein, the radio using the phone as a data modem and call processing being handled in the radio.

3. The communication system of claim 1, wherein one of the first communication device is a radio and the second communication device is a phone, the phone having a PTT VoIP client therein such that the phone forwards audio over a PAN link to the radio and call processing is handled in the phone.

4. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the first communication device is a radio and the second communication device is a phone, both the radio and the phone having a PTT VoIP client and the radio and phone playing out audio traffic on respective speakers, the audio traffic originating from two different PTT sources.

5. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the first device is designated as a priority device for playing out calls and wherein audio traffic playing on the first device is moved to the second device when a higher priority group call is determined to have activity.

6. The communication system of claim 5, wherein the audio traffic starts and stops and the audio traffic is allowed to play through until it stops and is then moved to the second device.

7. The communication system of claim 1, wherein as audio traffic changes, a current transmission plays out on the first communication device before moving subsequent transmissions to the second communication device in response to a higher priority incoming call.

8. The communication system of claim 1, further comprising additional communication devices under the control of the single user, the additional communication devices providing audio sinks through which a plurality of audio streams are played out in accordance with the predetermined assigned priority and predetermined call priority.

9. The communication system of claim 1, wherein two or more call audio streams are summed to an audio sink.

10. The communication system of claim 1, further comprising additional communication devices used by the single user within a vehicular environment, the additional communication devices being prioritized for multi-watch over incoming calls, wherein a plurality of incoming calls are prioritized and played out over at least three of car speakers, land mobile radio speakers, portable radio speaker, phone speaker, and an audio earpiece.

11. A communication system comprising:

a plurality of audio communication devices under the control of a single user the plurality of communication devices providing multi-watch for a plurality of incoming calls originating from a plurality of push-to-talk (PTT) sources, one of the plurality of communication devices determining play-out of the plurality of incoming calls based on a predetermined speaker priority assignment of the plurality of communication devices and a predetermined call priority.

12. The communication system of claim 11, wherein the communication device that determines the play-out of the plurality of incoming calls comprises a two-way radio.

13. The communication system of claim 12, wherein the two-way radio plays out the incoming calls on at least three of:

the two-way radio itself, a cell phone, a mobile radio, an earpiece, and a remote speaker microphone.

14. The communication system of claim 12, wherein the two-way radio uses a stored scan list which contains priority assignments for the plurality of audio communication devices and the predetermined call priority.

15. The communication system of claim 11, wherein the predetermined call priority is based on channel origination of the plurality of incoming calls.

16. The communication system of claim 11, wherein the predetermined call priority is based on type of incoming call.

17. The communication system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of communication devices communicate with each other over a PAN network and at least one of the plurality of communication devices has a VoIP client.

18. The communication system of claim 11, wherein plurality of audio communication devices are being operated within a vehicle.

19. The communication system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of audio communication devices include radio and non-radio devices.

20. A method of managing incoming calls in a communication system, comprising:

assigning device priority to a plurality of communication devices under the control of a single user, each communication device having a speaker;

assigning call priority for PTT calls expected by the user;

storing the assigned device priority and assigned call priority to a scan list;

scanning the scan list;

receiving a plurality of incoming PTT calls in response to scanning; and

playing the plurality of incoming PTT calls over two or more devices of the plurality of communication devices based on the assigned device priority and the assigned call priority thereby providing multi-watch over the received incoming calls.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of playing the plurality of incoming PTT calls comprises:

moving audio traffic from one device to another device of the plurality of devices when a higher priority PTT call is received.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein playing the plurality of incoming PTT calls comprises:

summing audio traffic from two different PTT sources; and

playing the summed audio traffic at different times on the same communication device.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of receiving comprises:

determining whether a first priority device from amongst the plurality of communication devices is currently playing audio traffic;

comparing channel priority of the incoming PTT call to the channel of the currently playing audio traffic in response to determining that audio traffic is currently being played; and

adjusting a location to play-out the incoming PTT call and the currently playing audio traffic based on the step of comparison.

24. The method of claim 20, the step of receiving comprises:

determining whether a first priority device from amongst the plurality of communication devices is currently playing audio traffic;

comparing the type of incoming PTT call to the type of currently playing audio traffic in response to determining that audio traffic is currently being played; and

adjusting a location to play-out the incoming PTT call and the currently playing audio traffic based on the step of comparison.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of receiving further comprises receiving the incoming PTT calls at one or more of the plurality of communication devices;

and linking the plurality of communication devices over a land mobile radio (LMR) gateway and alternate VoIP gateway for radio to non-radio communication.