Patent ID: 8401520

Claim:
A method for establishing a local conferencing session amongst a plurality of Bluetooth enabled terminal units, comprising the steps of: providing a Bluetooth enabled audio gateway, wherein said Bluetooth enabled audio gateway transfers voice data between a voice network and said plurality of Bluetooth enabled terminal units; providing a terminal unit session management entity on each of the plurality of Bluetooth enabled terminal units; providing an audio gateway session management entity on the Bluetooth enabled audio gateway; providing a Bluetooth communication channel for transmitting Bluetooth packets between the Bluetooth enabled audio gateway and the plurality of Bluetooth enabled terminal units, wherein said Bluetooth communication channel is one of a synchronous channel and an asynchronous channel, wherein said synchronous channel is one of a primary synchronous channel and a secondary synchronous channel; establishing a local conferencing session setup prior to said local conferencing session, comprising the steps of: establishing a set of common session parameters on the Bluetooth enabled audio gateway, wherein said common session parameters enable Bluetooth communication between the plurality of Bluetooth enabled terminal units and the Bluetooth enabled audio gateway; and transmitting said set of common session parameters from said audio gateway session management entity to said terminal unit session management entity of each of the plurality of Bluetooth enabled terminal units; coordinating the usage of said Bluetooth communication channel by the audio gateway session management entity and the terminal unit session management entity of each of the plurality of Bluetooth enabled terminal units, comprising the steps of: broadcasting first voice packets from the voice network to each of the Bluetooth enabled terminal units via the Bluetooth enabled audio gateway; and permitting only one of the Bluetooth enabled terminal units to transmit second voice packets to the voice network via the Bluetooth enabled audio gateway, wherein said permitted terminal unit is provided with microphone holder rights for transmitting said second voice packets to the audio gateway over the primary synchronous channel on reverse voice path; transferring said microphone holder rights from said permitted terminal unit to a requesting terminal unit by the audio gateway when said requesting terminal unit requests for said microphone holder rights; transmitting said second voice packets from said requesting terminal unit to the audio gateway over said secondary synchronous channel during said transfer of said microphone holder rights to reduce time latency between a trigger for said request and voice transmission to said audio gateway.