Patent ID: 8085671

Claim:
A method for interoperable communications with congestion management, comprising: facilitating communications of a plurality of virtual talk groups, each virtual talk group comprising a plurality of endpoints of different communication networks communicating using a respective communication channel; detecting, for a first virtual talk group of the plurality of virtual talk groups, a congestion event; in response to detecting the congestion event, forming from the first virtual talk group one or more subgroups, each subgroup comprising at least two endpoints from the first virtual talk group; assigning to each subgroup a respective alternate communication protocol comprising a communication path or method of communication for use by the plurality of endpoints of the subgroup; wherein the endpoints remaining in the first virtual talk group are able to continue to communicate with each other after formation of the one or more subgroups; and wherein the endpoints in each subgroup are able to communicate with the other endpoints in the subgroup using the alternate communication protocol.