Radio interoperability system and method

1. A method of initiating communication between a plurality of communication systems, at least two of the communication systems using different communication protocols, the method comprising:

maintaining interoperability data defining a plurality of scenarios, each scenario defining a mode of interoperability between a respective set of communication systems of the plurality of communication systems, at least one communication system in the respective set being a two-way radio system;

receiving a selection of a particular one of the scenarios;

in response to receiving the selection, automatically initiating establishment of a communication session between the communication systems of the respective set of communication systems of the particular one of the scenarios; and

receiving a request to perform at least one of: activating a predefined connection, deactivating a predefined connection, defining a connection, defining a gateway, managing users, defining schedules for one-time connections, or defining schedules for recurring connections;

wherein the plurality of communication systems is selected from the group including a radio system, a dispatch system, a PSTN, a public IP (Internet Protocol) network, an IP telephone network, an IP radio system and any combination thereof; and

wherein maintaining interoperability data comprises maintaining a database including the scenarios, connection information related to the scenarios and scenario identifiers, and data indicative of routing data packets between the communications systems, each scenario identifier identifying one of the scenarios.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one scenario comprises communication with at least one gateway, the gateway enabling a respective communication system to communicate over a packet network and configured to convert signals received from a packet network into a protocol of a respective communication system and converting signals to be transmitted from the communication system into a packet protocol.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one scenario comprises communication with at least one user device selected from the group consisting of a telephone unit, a radio unit, an IP (Internet Protocol) radio unit, an IP telephone unit and a workstation.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selection is received using at least one of (Dual Tone Multi-Frequency) encoding, IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technology and speech recognition technology.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a PIN (Personal Identification Number) and verifying that the PIN is valid before initiating establishment of the communication session.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selection is received over a packet network.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving a selection comprises receiving a scenario identifier from one of the communication systems.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the scenario identifier is sent by a user device in the communication system.

9. An interoperability system for enabling interoperability between a plurality of communication systems having at least two different communication protocols and said communication systems in communication with a packet network, at least one of the communication systems being a two-way radio system, the interoperability system comprising:

an interoperability server in communication with the packet network, the interoperability server configured to receive a selection of a particular scenario and initiate establishment of a communication session corresponding to the particular scenario,

wherein the particular scenario is selected from interoperability data defining a plurality of scenarios, each scenario comprising a mode of interoperability between a respective selected set of communication systems of the plurality of communication systems;

wherein the plurality of communication systems is selected from the group including a radio system, a dispatch system, a PSTN, a public IP (Internet Protocol) network, an IP telephone network, an IP radio system and any combination thereof;

wherein interoperability data comprises a database including the scenarios, connection information related to the scenarios and scenario identifiers, and data indicative of routing data packets between the communications systems, each scenario identifier identifying one of the scenarios; and

wherein the interoperability system is accessible through the packet network by a remote workstation and a user at the remote workstation is able to perform at least one of: activating a predefined connection, deactivating a predefined connection, defining a connection, defining a gateway, managing users, defining schedules for one-time connections, or defining schedules for recurring connection.

10. The interoperability system of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of communication systems is selected from the group consisting of a radio network, a PSTN, a public IP (Internet Protocol) network, an IP telephone network, an IP radio system and any combination thereof.

11. The interoperability system of claim 9 , wherein the interoperability data is a database.

12. The interoperability system of claim 9 , wherein the interoperability data comprises the scenarios, connection information for each scenario and a scenario identifier for each scenario.

13. The interoperability system of claim 12 , wherein the connection information is selected from the group consisting of gateway IP addresses; gateway numbers; gateway names; radio patch names; radio patch number; and signaling protocols.

14. The interoperability system of claim 9 , wherein the interoperability server is located on a distributed call management module.

15. The interoperability system of claim 9 , wherein the interoperability data is located on the interoperability server.

16. The interoperability system of claim 9 , wherein any communication system that uses a protocol other than packet protocol is in communication with the packet network through a gateway that converts signals from the protocol of the communication system into packet protocol for sending over the packet network and converts signals from the packet protocol into the protocol of the communication system for sending over the communication system.

17. The interoperability system of claim 16 , further comprising the gateway(s).

18. A computer readable memory having stored thereon instructions executable by at least one processor associated with an interoperability server for enabling interoperability between a plurality of communication systems having at least two different communication protocols and said communication systems in communication with a packet network, said instructions causing said server to:

maintain interoperability data defining a plurality of scenarios, each scenario defining a mode of interoperability between a respective set of communication systems of the plurality of communication systems, at least one communication system in the respective set being a two-way radio system

receive a selection of a particular one of the scenarios;

in response to receiving the selection, automatically initiate establishment of a communication session between the communication systems of the respective set of communication systems of the particular one of the scenarios; and

receive a request to perform at least one of: activating a predefined connection, deactivating a predefined connection, defining a connection, defining a gateway, managing users, defining schedules for one-time connections, or defining schedules for recurring connections;

wherein the plurality of communication systems is selected from the group including a radio system, a dispatch system, a PSTN, a public IP (Internet Protocol) network, an IP telephone network, an IP radio system and any combination thereof; and

wherein maintaining interoperability data comprises maintaining a database including the scenarios, connection information related to the scenarios and scenario identifiers, and data indicative of routing data packets between the communications systems, each scenario identifier identifying one of the scenarios.