Patent ID: 8432935

Claim:
A method of providing tandem-free operation (TFO) communication between a first wireless terminal and a second wireless terminal, wherein the first wireless terminal encodes active speech using a first wideband speech coder associated with a first type of wireless interface and generates active speech frames having a first format, wherein the second wireless terminal encodes active speech using a second wideband speech coder associated with a second type of wireless interface and generates active speech frames having a second format, wherein the first and second wideband speech coders each sample voice signals at a sampling rate greater than 8,000 samples per second, wherein the first format is different from the second format, and wherein the first type of wireless interface is different from the second type of wireless interface, the method comprising: encoding, at the first wireless terminal, first active speech data to generate an active speech frame having the first format; decoding, at the first wireless terminal, a received speech frame using the first speech coder or the second speech coder based on whether the speech data in the received speech frame is active speech or inactive speech; and sending inactive speech frames encoded with the first format to a network device for conversion to the second format.