An n-ways conferencing system using only the participants' telephony devices and without
an external conference server. A plurality of telephony devices dial in to and report their
mixing capability to a connection topology manager. The connection topology manager also
determines the location of each telephony device and neighboring telephony device pairs in
the conference service, as each telephony device is used for mixing voice signals of its
closest neighbors, and calculates a minimum conference traffic delay for each telephony …

The present invention provides a method, apparatus, and computer instructions for providing
an n-ways conferencing system using only the participants telephony devices and without
an external conference server. A plurality of tele phony devices dial into a connection
topology manager for a conference service, wherein at least one of the telephony devices in
the plurality has 3-way mixing capability. Each telephony device reports its mixing capability
to the connec tion topology manager. The connection topology manager also determines the …