Rather than dropping packets, the invention throttles the rate that audio
packets are output from a voice gateway by increasing the VoIP packet
size. An encoder in the voice gateway encodes audio signals into audio
packets. A processor in the voice gateway then switches the audio packets
to the IP network. The invention throttles the rate that these VoIP
packets are switched from the voice gateway by varying the number of
samples of the incoming audio signals that are encoded into each packet
payload. By increasing the packet payload size in the VoIP packets, the
voice gateway can switch the same amount of audio data in fewer VoIP
packets. Producing fewer VoIP packets increases the available capacity of
the voice gateway for processing audio signals for more calls. In other
words, encoding more audio data into each VoIP packet keeps the voice
gateway from having to drop packets. If capacity in the voice gateway
increases (the number of incoming calls decreases), the voice gateway can
resume generating VoIP packets at the original packet size.
