Patent ID: 8804553

Claim:
A tone relay system, comprising a tone detector arranged to receive a sequence of signal samples and to provide a plurality of media descriptors, each media descriptor an instance of a data structure, wherein: a first component of the data structure comprises a cell of one or more signal samples; and a second component of the data structure comprises tone detection meta-information for said cell; a tone aggregator module; an encoder module; and a tone relay module arranged to receive each media descriptor, to perform an evaluation of said meta-information of said media descriptor and modify said meta-information of said media descriptor depending on one or more preceding media descriptors when a result of said evaluation indicates an undetermined tone state, to provide said media descriptors with a predetermined delay to the tone aggregator module, when said meta-information indicates a tone, for transmission over a network, wherein said tone relay module is arranged to confirm a start of said tone depending on a first duration (Ts) after an indicated start of said tone; durations of the one or more signal samples of the cells of the media descriptors are less than the first duration Ts; and the providing comprises: storing the cells of received signal samples in a buffer; and inserting other cells comprising digital silence into the buffer prior to the cells of received signal samples; and to provide said media descriptors without said predetermined time delay to the encoder module, for transmission over said network, otherwise.