Abstract: At least some speakers engaged in an oral discourse are identified (101) and their oral contributions during that oral discourse tracked (102). At least one visual indicator provided (103) during the oral discourse serves to provide data regarding these tracked contributions (such as, but not limited to, an aggregate length of time that one or more of the participants has spoken). These teachings also provide, however, for automatically taking (104) at least one other action, during the oral discourse, as a function, at least in part, of this tracked oral contribution information.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for improving the communication coverage in a multi-cell communication system (100) which employs neighbor cell lists. A cell site (114) provides a communication unit (128) within its cell (112) with communication and a neighbor cell list. The neighbor cell list (200) informs the communication unit of other cells which are possible hand-off targets. When the fixed network equipment (FNE) detects that a particular communication unit (128) has entered another cell and/or needs to hand-off its communication to another cell site but has been denied, the cell site (114) sends the communication unit the neighbor cell list related to the new cell. With a new neighbor cell list (300), the communication unit (128) can now attempt to maintain its communication by handing-off to cells unknown before. In this manner the effective communication coverage of the system is improved.

Abstract: A transmitting data unit (101) transmits a data message (110) comprising a plurality of data blocks (111-112) to at least one receiving data unit (102-103). Upon reception of the data blocks, at least one corruption metric is determined for the received data blocks. Using the at least one corruption metric, it is determined if a portion of received data blocks has been inadequately received. When the portion of received data blocks has been inadequately received, a resend counter is incremented. If the resend counter exceeds a counter limit value, transmission of resend requests is disabled. Transmission of resend requests may be re-enabled upon satisfaction of a re-enable condition or expiration of a predetermined period of time.

Abstract: A data message (201) is transmitted (301) to a plurality of communication units (103, 105, 107, and 109). The data message (201) is received (401) by the plurality of communication units, which determine (403) whether the quality of the received data message is acceptable. When at least one of the plurality of communication units determines that the received data message is of unacceptable quality, the at least one of the plurality of communication units transmits (411) an energy burst (203) in a predetermined time window. Upon detection of the energy burst (203), the transmitting device may retransmit (309) the data message to the plurality of communication units.

Abstract: A radio communication system receiver employs a demodulator (104) to recover a received signal. The receiver of the present invention further includes a channel quality estimator (222) for estimating a characteristic of the communication channel over which the signal is received. A first or second decoding technique (220) is selectively employed using the estimated communication channel quality value (223). In this manner, an improved receiver is provided that is able to realize the benefits of either the first or the second decoding technique, depending the channel condition.