摘要 |
The present invention addresses the need for providing dispatch service to dispatch clients via a packet-switched network, such as the Internet, by disclosing a network dispatch manager, a dispatch gateway, a method for a network dispatch manager to provide dispatch service, and a method for a dispatch gateway to provide dispatch service. Dispatch service is provided via a multicast-capable, packet-switched network (114) connecting a network dispatch manager (112) to dispatch gateways (115-116) and a packet-switched network (120), such as the Internet, connecting the dispatch gateways to dispatch clients (124, 126). The network dispatch manager (112) assigns a multicast group to each dispatch gateway and uses the multicast group to multicast voice packets to the dispatch gateways (115-116). The dispatch gateways (115-116), in turn, perform any required packet duplication needed to forward the voice packets, via the packet-switched network (120), to the dispatch clients involved in the dispatch call. Thus, dispatch service can be provided to dispatch clients in addition to wireless devices.
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