Patent ID: 8244258

Claim:
A Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication control method executed by an access point apparatus comprising a wireless local area network (LAN) unit configured to make an association with a VoIP terminal and a memory, in which a threshold value indicating a maximum number of VoIP connections to the wireless LAN unit is stored, the method comprising: storing, in a connection manager, identification information of at least one terminal having an association with the wireless LAN unit, a number of terminals having associations with the wireless LAN unit, status information which indicates a call status of the at least one terminal having the identification information, the status information being changed from a calling status that indicates a call in progress to a call finished status that indicates a completed call in response to a request for VoIP disconnection transmitted from the at least one terminal, and the status information being changed from the call finished status to the calling status in response to a request for VoIP connection transmitted from the at least one terminal; and transmitting a release packet indicating release of the association from the wireless LAN unit to an object terminal when the number of terminals having associations with the wireless LAN unit exceeds the threshold value in response to the object terminal requesting VoIP communication and identification information of the object terminal is stored in the connection manager to establish association between the object terminal and the wireless LAN unit, wherein the status information of the object terminal is changed to the calling status when the object terminal requests VoIP communication, and the release packet is transmitted to the object terminal when the number of terminals having status information indicating the calling status exceeds the threshold value.