Methods, systems, and apparatus can be used to provide handover of on-hold sessions in converged networks. In various example implementations, an on-hold session between a mobile communication device and a fixed packet network-connected peer CPE can be handed over from a fixed packet domain to a cellular domain, and vice versa. In various example implementations, an on-hold session between a mobile communication device and a PSTN-connected peer CPE can be handed over from a fixed packet domain to a cellular domain, and vice versa.

Meeting and conferencing systems and methods are implemented in a variety of manners. Consistent with one embodiment of the present disclosure, an audio conference system includes communications circuitry and a caller interface, each associated with setting up or managing the audio conference. Menu options may be provided to validate or authenticate incoming telephony calls. In response to a selection of the menu options, an incoming telephony call may be prompted to select a callback number, and then the system monitors for a trigger event. A participant is contacted in response to detecting the trigger event, and the contacted participant is then placed into the audio conference.

Methods and systems are provided for automatically joining a user in a conference meeting via alternative communication devices when the user is detected to be unavailable at a particular client communication device. The client communication device of the user determines that the presence of the user is set to away, indicating that the user is unavailable at the client communication device. When the client communication device determines that a conference meeting including the user as an active participant is about to begin, the client communication device determines an alternative number, and different communication device, at which to reach the user. Using the alternative number, the client communication device calls the user at the different communication device and, when answered, automatically joins the user into the conference meeting through a communication channel provided by the client communication device.

The present invention relates to a method for forming a mobile ad-hoc voice network for operation in a rapidly changing environment, which comprises (A) assigning to a plurality of devices a group ID and to each of said devices a respective serial number (B) providing within each of said devices an algorithm for (B.1) calculating, based on individual neighbors data that are transmitted by each of the network devices within slots of a TDMA cycle, a structure of the network, including determination of one or more relay devices (B.2) calculating a leader for the network and (B.3) calculating a synchronizer for the network (C) transmitting by each of said devices within slots of said TDMA cycle the respective neighbors of that device (D) transmitting by the synchronizer of said network periodical synchronization data within slots of the TDMA cycle, and propagating the synchronization data to all the network devices upon, completion of each of said TDMA cycle, applying said algorithm by each of said devices to determine and possibly update the structure of the network, the relays of the network, and the leader of said network (E) within a period of said TDMA cycle, synchronizing each of the devices based on said synchronization data, while upon determination that the synchronizer is missing, determining by each device a new synchronizer for the system and (F) sending by devices of said network within a plurality of said TDMA slots voice data in digital form.

Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for admitting conferees into a conference call. Methods to achieve the foregoing can comprise: transmitting an admission request from a user of a communications device to a server for admission to a conference call, the admission request including a unique identifier; storing data unique to the communications device in a data store; relaying the unique identifier from the server to the data store; comparing the unique identifier with the data unique to the communications device; and, when the unique identifier and the previously stored data match, connecting the user directly to the conference call which includes bypassing entry of at least one conference pass code by the user.

[Problem] To achieve a voice communication system which communicates between two networks that use partially overlapping address spaces. [Solution] According to the present invention, first and second networks are connected to one another by means of a gateway device provided with: a first protocol stack which manages transmission and reception addresses of communication packets in the first network; a second protocol stack which manages transmission and reception addresses of communication packets in the second network; and a call control unit which, upon reception of a communication packet from either network, determines the transfer destination network and transfer destination address of the packet on the basis of call destination information included in the packet.

A system includes participant nodes that unicast a voice stream to a master node and receive a multicast voice stream from the master node. The multicast voice stream may be a mixed voice stream mixing the voice streams of the participants. In this case, each participant performs echo cancellation on the multicast voice stream. Alternatively, the multicast voice stream may be a multiplexed voice stream multiplexing the voice streams of all participants. In this case, each participant de-multiplexes the multicast voice stream and generates a mixed voice stream that does not include that participant. Alternatively, the multicast voice stream received by each participant may be a multiplexed digital voice stream multiplexing multiple mixed streams including one mixed stream that does not include the voice stream of that participant. In this case, each participant de-multiplexes the multicast voice stream to obtain the mixed stream that does not include that participant.

A technique is provided that can reduce degradation of the sound quality due to a tandem connection of paired coding and decoding, and can reduce the operation processing amount and the required memory amount of a multipoint control unit. In multipoint connection between terminals of a plurality of communication networks (for example, a fixed phone line and a mobile phone line) having different communication capacities, when a multichannel coding including a monaural coding scheme of a communication network having a smaller communication capacity is used in a communication network having a larger communication capacity to transmit sounds of a plurality points to the communication network terminal having the larger communication capacity, control is exercised such that monaural codes of the plurality points are output.

A technique is provided that can reduce degradation of the sound quality due to a tandem connection of paired coding and decoding, and can reduce the operation processing amount and the required memory amount of a multipoint control unit. In multipoint connection between terminals of a plurality of communication networks (for example, a fixed phone line and a mobile phone line) having different communication capacities, when a multichannel coding including a monaural coding scheme of a communication network having a smaller communication capacity is used in a communication network having a larger communication capacity to transmit sounds of a plurality points to the communication network terminal having the larger communication capacity, control is exercised such that monaural codes of the plurality points are output.

Methods and systems are provided for automatically joining a user in a conference meeting via alternative communication devices when the user is detected to be unavailable at a particular client communication device. The client communication device of the user determines that the presence of the user is set to away, indicating that the user is unavailable at the client communication device. When the client communication device determines that a conference meeting including the user as an active participant is about to begin, the client communication device determines an alternative number, and different communication device, at which to reach the user. Using the alternative number, the client communication device calls the user at the different communication device and, when answered, automatically joins the user into the conference meeting through a communication channel provided by the client communication device.