Patent ID: 8626138

Claim:
A method for enabling a first mobile station to interact via a multi-party mobile communication session with at least one second mobile station using circuit-switched voice communication capabilities of the first mobile station and the at least one second mobile stations, the method comprising: establishing, at a first mobile gateway platform, upon detecting a request from a first mobile station that a multi-party communication session be commenced with at least one second mobile station, a first circuit-switched voice call connection with the first mobile station via a base station in a radio access network (RAN); communicating, at the first mobile gateway platform, with a database to obtain information regarding the at least one second mobile station including an identity of one or more second mobile gateway platforms respectively serving the at least one second mobile station; establishing, at the first mobile gateway platform, the multi-party communication session with the one or more second mobile gateway platforms, wherein each second mobile gateway platform, upon completion of the establishing of the multi-party communication session with the first mobile gateway platform, establishes a second circuit-switched voice call connection with the corresponding second mobile station; packetizing, at the first mobile gateway platform, a voice input received from the first mobile station via the first voice call connection; and sending the packetized voice input to each of the one or more second mobile gateway platforms via the multi-party communication session, wherein each second mobile gateway platform, upon receiving the packetized voice input, extracts the voice input and sends the voice input to the corresponding second mobile station via the second voice call connection, wherein the first mobile gateway platform and the one or more second mobile gateway platforms each includes a soft-switch for coordinating pathway setup and wherein the soft-switches communicate with one another through signaling system 7 (SS7) system, wherein the first mobile gateway platform is interposed between a base station controller (BSC) and a mobile switching center (MSC), and wherein the BSC is coupled to the base station in the RAN and the MSC is coupled to public switched telephone network (PSTN) and the SS7 system.