Patent ID: 8045557

Claim:
One or more computer-readable media having computer-usable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method of minimizing the bandwidth consumed in a group communication data stream in a wireless telecommunications network, wherein a base station is capable of sending a group communication stream by broadcasting the stream or unicasting the stream through a data channel, the method comprising: communicating a group communication stream request from a first user to a transmission proxy server logically coupled with a base station; sending a first group communication stream to the transmission proxy server; at the transmission proxy server, determining if a most efficient use of bandwidth occurs by communicating the first group communication stream utilizing a broadcast channel or a unicast data channel; communicating the first group communication stream through the most efficient channel from the base station; communicating subsequent requests to the transmission proxy server; determining whether a more efficient use of bandwidth occurs when subsequent group communication streams that are associated with subsequent requests are sent through broadcast channels or unicast channels, based on a bandwidth requirement of each stream and a lapsed temporal duration of each stream; and sending the subsequent group communication streams through the most efficient channels.