Patent ID: 7035229

Claim:
A method of providing conferencing resources in an expandable telecommunications system having a plurality of nodes, and a host coupled to at least one node of the plurality of nodes for controlling the system in which conferencing resources are utilized by one or more of said plurality of nodes that are participating in a conference, the method including the steps of: (A) providing the plurality of nodes with means for connecting and disconnecting communications paths between a plurality of ports having digital network/line interfaces that couple the plurality of nodes with a PSTN and private network, said plurality of nodes including switching nodes that can switch communications to any port connected to the system, and at least two of said switching nodes being conferencing nodes, said conferencing nodes including individual digital signal processing (DSP) circuits programmed to perform a conference between three or more participants who are callers connected at any port in the system, and said switching nodes having switching buses on which each node of said plurality of nodes is assigned time slots for transmitting and receiving data and control information and said switching nodes being connected in communicating relationship by an inter-nodal network; (B) defining a requested conference as being of one of a dynamic conference type, a critical conference type and a static conference type, including determining conference type by employing statistical analysis and/or historical data about past system conference behavior in said statistical analysis to predict conference type; (C) identifying a DSP circuit within a conferencing node that has available resources for performing a conferencing function for a conference of that type as requested in the system; and (D) after said DSP circuit within a conferencing node that has available resources has been identified, determining whether the conferencing node in which said identified DSP circuit is located has sufficient available time slots on its switching bus to manage the data to and from all of the participants in the requested conference.