Patent ID: 7532713

Claim:
A conference bridge, comprising: at least first and second digital signal processing circuits adapted to process voice signals in an internet protocol format; a network interface circuit connected to the first and second digital signal processing circuits, adapted for connection to a data network, and capable of transmitting and receiving voice over internet protocol (VoIP) signals between the data network and the first digital signal processing circuit; a control circuit that dynamically transfers calls between the first and second digital signal processing circuits; a plurality of call-in numbers associated with the conference bridge to facilitate connection by a conferee to one of said call-in numbers to participate in a conference carried by the conference bridge; data storage that stores one or more sets of call handling parameter defining information and associates at least one of the sets of parameter defining information with a grouping of one or more of said call-in numbers; and one or more processing mechanisms associated with the first and second digital signal processing circuits and the data storage, operating to detect a received call, obtain information identifying the call-in number dialed by the conferee, identify the grouping to which the dialed call-in number belongs, retrieve from the data storage the call handling parameter defining information corresponding to the identified grouping, and processing the call according to said retrieved call handling parameter defining information; wherein the control circuit automatically transfers calls between the first and second digital signal processing circuits to consolidate calls in a single conference onto the same digital signal processing circuit.