Patent ID: 7983199
Filing Date: 2011-07-19
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A conference call system, comprising: an arbiter and a plurality of push-to-talk clients; wherein the arbiter configured: to receive push-to-talk signals from a particular client, said signals including the internet addresses of a selected group of clients that constitute a particular conference call group; to initiate a push-to-talk conference call between said selected group of clients by using push-to-talk signaling over a Voice over IP packet switched network; to enable said particular client to transmit Voice Over IP packets to members of said particular conference call group while enabling the other clients in said particular conference call group to only receive Voice Over IP packets; to receive a push-to-talk session request from one of the clients; and to establish a transmit VoIP connection for the client sending the push-to-talk session request in response to the push-to-talk session request while maintaining currently existing receive-only VoIP connections for the other clients and terminating a transmit VoIP connection for one of the clients that had a floor in the push-to-talk conference call prior to the push-to-talk session request.