Patent ID: 7792282

Claim:
A network device, comprising: at least two communication ports to allow the device to communicate with at least two telephony devices; and a ring manager to: maintain a queue for communication ports of the at least two communication ports associated with silent to ringing requests and ringing to silent requests; determine if any of the communication ports in the queue are associated with current silent to ringing requests; for a communication port in the queue associated with a current silent to ringing request: determine if a value indicating an amount of available power indicates that there is power available to transition the communication port from silent to ringing; if power is available, transition the communication port from silent to ringing and reduce the value indicating the amount of available power; and if power is not available, leave the communication port in the queue, such that communication port may experience cadence distortion; and for a communication port in the queue associated with a current ringing to silent request: transition the communication port from ringing to silent; increase the value indicating the amount of available power; and return the communication port to an end of the queue.