Patent ID: 8422406

Claim:
A method of performing a call in a telecommunication system having a plurality of transmitter/receiver units registered with a telecommunications network, the method comprising: receiving in the network a first uplink signal representing detected sound from a first originating unit, wherein the first uplink signal includes a first speech component; receiving in the network a second uplink signal representing detected sound from a second originating unit, wherein the second uplink signal includes a second speech component; encoding said first uplink signal with a first tag corresponding to the first originating unit; encoding the second uplink signal with a second tag corresponding to the second originating unit; generating a downlink signal by combining the tag-encoded first and second uplink signals, wherein the first and second tags are embedded with the first and second speech components from the first and second uplink signals in a payload of said downlink signal, which payload conveys the detected sound; receiving, over a single channel, the downlink signal at a receiving unit; and extracting, at the receiving unit, said first and second embedded tags from the downlink signal in order to identify the first speech components from the first originating unit and identify the second speech component from the second originating unit.