METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MONITORING LINK ACTIVITY TO PREVENT SYSTEM DEADLOCK IN A DISPATCH SYSTEM

摘要

A method and apparatus to prevent system deadlock in a dispatch system by monitoring link activity is described. The dispatch system is comprised of a set of remote units (10, 20, 22) which communicate with each other by broadcasting one at a time to the group. A remote unit (10) communicates with the other remote units through at least one base station (44). A communications manager (40) grants a remote unit (10) to be the exclusive system talker upon request through the base station servicing the requesting remote unit (44). The base station (44) monitors a series of data from the remote unit designated as the system talker (10) to detect voice activity. The base station (44) sends a surrogate request to the communications manager (40) to relinquish the system talker privilege if the voice activity falls below a predetermined threshold.