Conferencing arrangement for use with wireless terminals

• US 6,522,633 B1
• Filed: 12/22/1998
• Issued: 02/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: RPX Clearinghouse LLC (RPX Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Strawczynski, Leo
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, STEVEN H D
• Application Number:
  US09/218,429
• Time in Patent Office: 1,519 Days
• Field of Search: 370/260-267 455/416-417 379/201,202.01,157-159
• US Class Current: 370/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/568 audio processing specific to telephonic conferencing, e.g. spatial distribution, mixing of participants echo suppression in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/02; sound field processing per se H04S7/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/569 using the instant speaker's algorithm speech detection per se G10L25/78

Abstract

This invention provides a conferencing arrangement for use with two or more wireless terminals. According to the invention, the conferencing arrangement receives signals from a plurality of input communication paths of which at least two are from wireless terminals. In one embodiment of the invention, the wireless terminals will receive either a low bit rate (LBR) signal which has undergone conversion from a pulse code modulated (PCM) signal, or an LBR signal forwarded from an input terminal without any conversion. Advantageously, the ability to forward an original LBR signal from a wireless terminal to one or more output terminals reduces unnecessary tandem encoding. In another embodiment, only LBR signals required for conference summing are decoded and encoded, thereby resulting in hardware savings.

Claims

1. A conferencing apparatus comprising:

means for receiving signals at a conference bridge from a plurality of input communication paths of which at least two are associated with low bit rate voice signals;

means for estimating the signal energy in each of said input communication paths to give a signal energy estimation;

means for comparing each of said signal energy estimations against a predetermined threshold; and

means responsive to said signal energy estimating and comparing means for decoding only each of said low bit rate voice signals that is required by said conferencing apparatus, wherein said low bit rate voice signals required by said conferencing apparatus is a maximum of (n+1) for a conferencing apparatus in which a transmission on an output communication path utilizes only n signals with the greatest estimations of signal energy other than the signal energy of an input signal associated with said output communication path.

2. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the number of decoders required for said decoding means is a maximum of (n+1).

3. The apparatus as described in claim 1 further comprising means for encoding each unique output for output communication paths associated with said at least two received low bit rate voice signals.

4. The apparatus as described in claim 3, wherein the number of encoders required for said encoding means is a maximum of (n+1).

5. A conferencing apparatus comprising:

means for receiving signals at a conference bridge from a plurality of input communication paths of which at least two are associated with low bit rate voice signals;

means for estimating the signal energy in each of said input communication paths to give a signal energy estimation;

means for comparing each of said signal energy estimations against a predetermined threshold; and

means responsive to said signal energy estimating and comparing means for decoding only each of said low bit rate voice signals that is required by said conferencing apparatus, wherein the number of said low bit rate voice signals required for said conferencing apparatus is a maximum of n for a conferencing apparatus in which a transmission on an output communication path utilizes either only n signals with the greatest estimations of signal energy, or, if one of said only n signals is associated with said output signal, only (n−

1) signals with the greatest estimations of signal energy other than the signal energy of an input signal associated with said output signal.

6. The apparatus as described in claim 5 wherein the number of decoders required for said decoding means is a maximum of n.

7. The apparatus as described in claim 5 further comprising means for encoding each unique output for output communication paths associated with said at least two received low bit rate voice signals.

8. The apparatus as described in claim 7 wherein the number of encoders required for said encoding means is a maximum of (n+1).

9. A method of providing a conference communication comprising the steps of:

receiving signals at a conference bridge from a plurality of input communication paths of which at least two are associated with low bit rate voice signals;

estimating the signal energy in each of said input communication paths to obtain a signal energy estimation;

comparing each of said signal energy estimations against a predetermined threshold to obtain a signal energy comparison; and

in response to said signal energy estimations and comparisons, decoding only each of said low bit rate voice signals that is required for said conference communication, wherein the number of said low bit rate voice signals required for said conference communication is a maximum of (n+1) for a conference communication in which a transmission on an output communication path utilizes only n signals with the greatest estimations of signal energy other than the signal energy of an input signal associated with said output communication path.

10. The method as described in claim 9 wherein the number of decoders required for said decoding step is a maximum of (n+1).

11. The method as described in claim 9 further comprising the step of encoding each unique output for output communication paths associated with said at least two received low bit rate voice signals.

12. The method as described in claim 11 wherein the number of encoders required for said encoding step is a maximum of (n+1).

13. A method of providing a conference communication comprising the steps of:

receiving signals at a conference bridge from a plurality of input communication paths of which at least two are associated with low bit rate voice signals;

estimating the signal energy in each of said input communication paths to obtain a signal energy estimation;

comparing each of said signal energy estimations against a predetermined threshold to obtain a signal energy comparison; and

in response to said signal energy estimations and comparisons, decoding only each of said low bit rate voice signals that is required for said conference communication, wherein the number of said low bit rate voice signals required for said conference communication is a maximum of n for a conference communication in which a transmission on an output communication path utilizes either only n signals with the greatest estimations of signal energy, or, if one of said only n signals is associated with said output signal, only (n−

1) signals with the greatest estimations of signal energy other than the signal energy of an input signal associated with said output signal.

14. The method as described in claim 13 wherein the number of decoders required for said decoding step is a maximum of n.

15. The method as described in claim 14 further comprising the step of encoding each unique output for output communication paths associated with said at least two received low bit rate voice signals.

16. The method as described in claim 15 wherein the number of encoders required for said encoding step is a maximum of (n+1).