Patent ID: 8135120

Claim:
A method in a system including a plurality of terminals, a call control apparatus for controlling restriction on call connections of the plurality of terminals, and a group management apparatus for grouping the plurality of terminals, the method comprising: creating, by the group management apparatus, one or more groups each including one or more terminals included in the plurality of terminals; associating, by the call control apparatus, each of the one or more groups with the maximum number of calling terminals and a group restriction relaxing ratio indicating a relaxing degree of restriction with respect to a predetermined normal restriction ratio; controlling, by the call control apparatus, restriction on a call connection of a first terminal belonging to none of the one or more groups, on the basis of the predetermined normal restriction ratio; and controlling, by the call control apparatus, restriction on a call connection of a grouped terminal belonging to a first group included in the one or more groups, on the basis of a group restriction ratio assigned to the first group when the number of calling terminals within the first group is less than the maximum number of calling terminals that is associated with the first group, wherein the group restriction ratio is calculated using the predetermined normal restriction ratio and the group restriction relaxing ratio associated with the first group.