Patent ID: 7006456

Claim:
A conference bridge suitable for managing a conference between a plurality of media signal sources generating media data packets conveying encoded media information and encoding type information, said conference bridge comprising: a) an input for receiving a plurality of link messages for joining a conference, each link message being associated with a respective media signal source of the plurality of media signal sources, each link message including a data element from which can be derived at least one encoding type that the associated media signal source can support during decoding of encoded media information; b) a processing unit coupled to said input, said processing unit being operative for: i. processing the data elements in the plurality of link messages to derive: (a) a first encoding type supported by each media signal source of the plurality of media signal sources; (b) a second encoding type different from the first encoding type supported by at least two media signal sources from the plurality of media signal sources and unsupported by at least one of the media signal sources from the plurality of media signal sources; ii. generating a link message reply signal for transmission to each media signal source of the plurality of media signal sources, the link message reply signals for transmission to the at least two media signal sources supporting the second encoding type conveying the first encoding type and the second encoding type, the link message reply signals for transmission to the media signal sources other than the at least two media signals sources conveying at least the first encoding type; c) an output coupled to said processing unit for releasing the link message reply signals for transmission to the plurality of media signal sources.