Patent ID: 6138022
Filing Date: 2000-10-24
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
A communication network, comprising:a group of base stations, each base station being operative to establish an RF communication with a wireless terminal over an air interface, each base station being capable of exchanging with a respective wireless terminal data packets of compressed audio information, each base station being free of a vocoder;a group of vocoders for selectively encoding or decoding audio information from either one of said base stations, said group of vocoders including less vocoders than base stations in said group of base stations;a digital network interconnecting said group of base stations and said group of vocoders, said digital network being operative to establish a first pathway to allow at least two base stations of said group of base stations to exchange data packets of compressed audio information, said pathway being free of vocoders, said digital network being further operative to establish a second pathway between a base station and a vocoder to allow a base station of said group of base stations to exchange data packets of compressed audio information with a vocoder of said group of vocoders.