Granted Patent B2

US 12,726,795 · App. 18/670,784 · Granted Sep 1, 2026

Inventors: John M Schools (Forest, VA); Robin Grier (Forest, VA)

Assignee: Catalyst Communications Technologies, Inc.

H04W4/10H04L43/04H04W24/08H04W76/45

Abstract

Claims (43)

1 . A computer-implemented method for communications comprising:

accessing push-to-talk (PTT) services over a first communications system, wherein the first communications system provides PTT over broadband (PTToB) services, and wherein the first communications system includes server-based connectivity;

providing additional push-to-talk (PTT) services over a second communications system, wherein the second communications system implements a different network protocol from the first communications system, and wherein the second communications system includes server-based connectivity;

coupling a client system to one or more servers in at least the first communications system;

monitoring PTT services activity over the at least the first communications system; and

inferring a community operational situation, based on data obtained during the monitoring.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the coupling a client system to one or more servers includes two or more communications systems.

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the first communications system and the second communications system are coupled to each other using the server-based connectivity.

4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the first communications system and the second communications system operate incommunicado.

5 . The method of claim 1 further comprising comparing the data that was obtained with historical monitoring data collected over time.

6 . The method of claim 5 wherein the comparing the data includes data collation and/or analysis.

7 . The method of claim 5 further comprising modifying the community operational situation, based on the comparing.

8 . The method of claim 1 further comprising creating a hot spot mapping of the community, based on the inferring.

9 . The method of claim 1 further comprising delivering an operational alert, based on the inferring.

10 . The method of claim 9 wherein the operational alert is delivered to a dispatcher monitoring one or more communications systems.

11 . The method of claim 1 wherein the community operational situation includes emergency response activities.

12 . The method of claim 1 wherein the data includes system metadata.

13 . The method of claim 12 wherein the system metadata is associated with community radio communication.

14 . The method of claim 1 wherein the data includes audio data.

15 . The method of claim 14 further comprising performing speech recognition on the audio data to extract audio keywords.

16 . The method of claim 15 further comprising analyzing the audio keywords to develop a situational heat map.

17 . The method of claim 1 wherein the data is associated with a particular community operational situation.

18 . The method of claim 1 wherein the inferring includes a correlation factor.

19 . The method of claim 18 wherein the correlation factor represents a trueness or falseness metric.

20 . The method of claim 1 wherein the broadband services of the first communications system are based on cellular protocols.

21 . The method of claim 20 wherein the cellular protocols include long-term evolution (LTE) protocols.

22 . The method of claim 20 wherein the second communications system is based on Land Mobile Radio protocols (LMR).

23 . The method of claim 22 wherein the second communications system includes services from two or more different vendors.

24 . The method of claim 22 wherein the second communications system is based on near field communication (NFC) protocols.

25 . A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium for communications, the computer program product comprising code which causes one or more processors to perform operations of:

accessing push-to-talk (PTT) services over a first communications system, wherein the first communications system provides PTT over broadband (PTToB) services, and wherein the first communications system includes server-based connectivity;

providing additional push-to-talk (PTT) services over a second communications system, wherein the second communications system implements a different network protocol from the first communications system, and wherein the second communications system includes server-based connectivity;

coupling a client system to one or more servers in at least the first communications system;

monitoring PTT services activity over the at least the first communications system; and

inferring a community operational situation, based on data obtained during the monitoring.

26 . A computer system for communications comprising:

a memory which stores instructions;

one or more processors coupled to the memory wherein the one or more processors, when executing the instructions which are stored, are configured to:

access push-to-talk (PTT) services over a first communications system, wherein the first communications system provides PTT over broadband (PTToB) services, and wherein the first communications system includes server-based connectivity;

provide additional push-to-talk (PTT) services over a second communications system, wherein the second communications system implements a different network protocol from the first communications system, and wherein the second communications system includes server-based connectivity;

couple a client system to one or more servers in at least the first communications system;

monitor PTT services activity over the at least the first communications system; and

infer a community operational situation, based on data obtained during the monitoring.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (56)