Conference call arrangement for distributed network
First Claim
1. A method for summing digital voice packets including the steps ofestablishing a time base for providing a plurality of periodic signals during a time interval,asynchronously receiving said digital voice packets from at least two sources during said time interval, andstoring said digital voice packets in respective queues corresponding to ones of said at least two sources, andcalculating, during a period between two sequential ones of said periodic signals, a sum of ones of said digital voice packets from each of said queues which contain at least one digital voice packet.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An arrangement for conducting a conference call over a distributed digital network in which, at each station connected to the conference call, only voice packets from the other stations connected to the conference call are received. To avoid the need for synchronization between stations connected to the conference call, a local time base is established to define a sequence of periodic intervals during which a single voice packet will be accepted from each station connected to the conference call. The interval is advantageously set to be approximately equal the sampling period for data in a received data packet which will be reasonably uniform for all stations on the network. This provides that, typically, a maximum of one data packet will be received from any selected station during a single time base interval. The time base interval can be adaptively adjusted by monitoring the transmission queues of the local or other stations connected to the conference call and the interval can be reduced if a transmission queue exceeds a predetermined length.
136 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for summing digital voice packets including the steps of
establishing a time base for providing a plurality of periodic signals during a time interval, asynchronously receiving said digital voice packets from at least two sources during said time interval, and storing said digital voice packets in respective queues corresponding to ones of said at least two sources, and calculating, during a period between two sequential ones of said periodic signals, a sum of ones of said digital voice packets from each of said queues which contain at least one digital voice packet.
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6. A method for carrying out a conference connection over a distributed digital network including the steps of
asynchronously receiving, at a predetermined station connected to said conference call connection, digital voice packets from selected stations connected to said network and included in the conference connection other than said predetermined station, and storing said digital voice packets in respective queues corresponding to ones of said at least two sources, and calculating, during a period between two sequential ones of said periodic signals, a sum of ones of said digital voice packets from each of said queues which contain at least one digital voice packet.
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11. A voice server for a distributed digital network including
means for establishing a time base for providing a plurality of periodic signals during a time interval, means for asynchronously receiving digital voice packets from at least two sources during said time interval, and means for storing said digital voice packets in respective queues corresponding to ones of said at least two sources, and means for calculating a sum of ones of said digital voice packets from each of said queues which contain at least one digital voice packet.
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16. A distributed digital network for communicating data in packets among a plurality of nodes, said distributed digital network including
means for establishing a time base for providing a plurality of periodic signals during a time interval for at least one said node, means for asynchronously receiving digital data packets from at least two sources during at least one said time interval, and means for storing said digital data packets in respective queues corresponding to ones of said at least two sources, and means for performing, during a period between two sequential ones of said periodic signals, a logical combination of ones of said digital data packets from each of said queues which contain at least one digital voice packet.
Specification