Patent ID: 7453826

Claim:
A method for managing a multicast conference call, comprising: receiving a plurality of signals at a local endpoint participating in a multicast conference call among the local endpoint and one or more remote endpoints, the plurality of signals comprising a local signal and one or more remote signals, the local signal associated with the local endpoint, each remote signal associated with a remote endpoint of the one or more remote endpoints; determining, at the local endpoint, a plurality of metric ratings by: generating a metric vector for each signal of the plurality of signals, each metric vector comprising a plurality of metric values generated for the each signal, the plurality of metric values comprising a first metric value and a second metric value; and applying a function to each metric vector to generate a metric rating for each signal, the function weighting the first metric value more than the second metric value because the first metric value has a greater effect on signal importance than the second metric, each metric rating reflecting an importance of a signal of the plurality of signals, the plurality of metric ratings comprising a local metric rating and one or more remote metric ratings, the local metric rating corresponding to the local signal, each remote metric rating corresponding to a remote signal of the one or more remote signals; comparing the local metric rating and the one or more remote metric ratings; and selecting a subset of the plurality of signals according to the comparison in order to manage the multicast conference call.