Importance

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Abstract

Participants in a pre-planned conference call are permitted to make reservations for ports on a conference bridge that are either guaranteed or bumpable. Guaranteed reservations are fulfilled regardless of subsequent requests for conference bridge space, while bumpable reservations are fulfilled only if subsequent requests for guaranteed conference bridge space do not require use of the same conference bridge ports. Specifically, in a telecommunications conferencing system taking the form of a conference bridge having n ports, where n is an integer greater than unity, and a system database, a non-guaranteed reservation request is received for a total of p ports for use during times which include a specified period of time, where p is an integer equal to or less than n, the requested ports are assigned, a guaranteed reservation request is received for a total of x ports for use during times which include at least part of the specified period of time, where x is an integer equal to or less than n and (x+p) is greater than n, and enough of the p ports from the non-guaranteed reservation are dropped during the part of the specified period of time to accommodate the guaranteed reservation request, so that (x+p) is no longer greater than n.

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First Claim