US 11,943,153 B2
Using buffered audio to overcome lapses in telephony signal
Kevin Yao, Cheyenne, WY (US); and Prashant Raghuvanshi, Parker, CO (US)
Assigned to DISH Wireless L.L.C., Englewood, CO (US)
Filed by DISH Wireless L.L.C., Englewood, CO (US)
Filed on Jun. 28, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/360,372.
Prior Publication US 2022/0417183 A1, Dec. 29, 2022
Int. Cl. H04W 88/02 (2009.01); G10L 15/26 (2006.01); H04L 49/90 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 49/90 (2013.01) [G10L 15/26 (2013.01); H04W 88/02 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A wireless telephony terminal, comprising:
a microphone configured to transform ambient audio into audio representation data;
a wireless telephony terminal transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit the audio representation data;
a buffer, comprising:
a buffer input configured to receive the audio representation data,
a buffer memory configured to store the audio representation data received at the buffer input, and
a buffer output configured to provide the audio representation data retrieved from the buffer memory;
an audio representation data router configured to route the audio representation data among the microphone, the buffer input, the buffer output, and the wireless telephony terminal transmitter as follows:
for a first period, routing the audio representation data from the microphone to the wireless telephony terminal transmitter;
for a second period succeeding the first period, for which it is determined that the audio representation data wirelessly transmitted by the wireless telephony terminal transmitter will not be received by a base station receiver, routing the audio representation data from the microphone to the buffer input;
in response to determining that the audio representation data wirelessly transmitted by the wireless telephony terminal transmitter will be received by a base station receiver, for a third period succeeding the second period, routing the audio representation data from the microphone to the buffer input, and routing the audio representation data from the buffer output to the wireless telephony terminal transmitter; and
for a fourth period succeeding the third period, routing the audio representation data from the microphone to the wireless telephony transmitter,
wherein:
the audio representation data router is configure to route the audio representation data from the microphone to the buffer input for an entire duration of each call;
the buffer memory is configured as a circular buffer to store the audio representation data as it is received from the microphone for the entire duration of each call, at each time during the duration of each call containing the audio representation data received during a fixed-length interval ending at the present time;
the buffer is configured to index the audio representation data stored in the buffer memory by the time at which it was received at the buffer input, the wireless telephony terminal further comprising a wireless telephony terminal receiver configured to receive a lapse notification message from a base station transmitter, the lapse notification message identifying a time at which a lapse in the audio representation data received by the base station receiver from the wireless telephony terminal transmitter began; and
the buffer is configure to proved the audio representation data at the buffer output beginning with the audio representation data indexed with the time identified by the lapse notification message received by the wireless telephony terminal receiver.