Patent ID: 7889721

Claim:
A Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) device for selecting a mode and communicating data based on the selected mode, the device comprising: at least one interface circuit, each interface circuit configured to monitor analog audio signals from one or more customer premise equipment device(s) during a communication to determine monitored frequency components of the analog audio signals from the corresponding customer premises equipment(s), and determine whether the monitored frequency components are outside a first band of frequencies; a processor circuit coupled to the at least one interface circuit and configured to: assign a first band mode for converting the analog audio signals to data packets during portions of the communication when none of frequency components monitored by the at least one interface circuit are outside the first band of frequencies, wherein each data packet comprises a header field and a data field; assign a second band mode for the conversion during portions of the communication when any one or more of the frequency components monitored by the at least one interface circuit are outside the first band of frequencies; and convert the analog audio signals to data packets by using the assigned one of the second and first band modes; and an output circuit coupled to the processor circuit and configured to receive and transmit the data packets through a communication channel to a network, wherein the assignment of the second band mode for the conversion enables the output circuit to use a larger bandwidth of the communication channel to the network than a bandwidth allowed by the assignment of the first band mode for the conversion in transmitting the data packets through the communication channel.