Patent ID: 7103017

Claim:
A communications system for use with a satellite-equipped link to establish one or more Internet Protocol (IP) communication pathways between a first location and a second location; the communications system comprising: (a) a gateway hub, at the first location, coupled to a terrestrial data network and also to a terrestrial telephonic network; and (b) a mobile auxiliary communications facility at the second location, wherein the mobile auxiliary communications facility includes a utilization mechanism for utilizing the IP communication pathways to implement one or more bi-directional telephonic communication links and one or more bi-directional data links, wherein the mobile auxiliary communications facility further includes a conversion/deconversion mechanism for converting voice, speech, and/or audio signals into a packet format compatible with standard Internet Protocol (IP) data transmissions, and also for deconverting an IP data packet transmission into a voice, speech, and/or audio signal, and wherein the mobile auxiliary communications facility further includes a bandwidth allocation, multiplexing and demultiplexing mechanism for allocating the available bandwidth of a communications link by combining voice and data packets into a single composite IP data channel on at least one of the one or more IP communication pathways wherein the mobile auxiliary communications facility is provided in the form of one or more mobile communications shelters, wherein the conversion/deconversion mechanism is implemented by one or more VoIP (Voice to Internet Protocol) Routers, and the bandwidth allocation, multiplexing and demultiplexing mechanism is implemented by an aggregation router, such that the aggregation router, coupled to one or more VoIP Routers, allocates the available bandwidth of a communications link by combining voice and data packets into a single composite IP data channel, wherein the VoIP router and the aggregation router are distributed amongst a plurality of different physical routers, such that a specified physical router can function as a VoIP router, an aggregation router, or both.