Patent ID: 6944123

Claim:
A communications system, comprising: a first mobile unit operable to transmit a first content, wherein the first content comprises voice content received from a user of the first mobile unit; a second mobile unit operable to transmit a second content, wherein the second content comprises voice content received from a user of the second mobile unit, the first and second mobile units participating in a conference call; a plurality of base transceiver stations, each base transceiver station operable to: receive the content from at least one of the mobile units; determine a value for a metric associated with communications between the mobile unit and the base transceiver station; generate a graded packet including the value and the content; and communicate the graded packet; and one or more routers collectively operable to: receive a plurality of first graded packets including the first content and a plurality of second graded packets including the second content; select one of the first graded packets based on the values included in the first graded packets; select one of the second graded packets based on the values included in the second graded packets; mix the first content of the selected first graded packet and the second content of the selected second graded packet to create a mixed packet including the first and second contents; and communicate the mixed packet.