Hello! I have a question regarding multipoint conferences in H.323. In the H.323 standard, it seems as if the "Conference Invite" functionality (see 8.4.3.5) requires that calling party (Endpoint 1) already before making the call set-up to Endpoint 2 (E2) must have decided that E2 shall be brought into the conference as a new member. So it is not possible for E1 to make an enquiry (consultation) call to see if E2 has the time to participate, has the required competence or whatever the criterion for participation might be. But, when I look at the Draft new recommendation H.450.8 "Conference out of Consultation Supplementary Service for H.323 (SS-CoC)" (February 8, 1999), it seems to have what I am looking for. According to this recommendation, it is possible to make a call, put the called (or calling of course) party on hold, make a consultation call and at that moment (after talking to the E2 party) decide to create a conference. But how do I do if I want to expand this to yet another party in the same way? According to H.450.8 (7.4.1), I shall use the H.323 "conference invite". That would mean that I have to use different principles when I go from a 2-party to a 3-party call, than when I go from an N-party to an (N+1)-party call. Does it have to be like that? I really think that it would be nice if the H.450.8 recommendation can be expanded to cover also cases when the held call is a conference. Currently, it only covers the case where the held call is to to a remote user. I would be glad to get your opinion regarding this. Best regards Hans Andersson _____________________________________________________________________ Hans Andersson System Design GSM Systems Tel: +46 8 757 22 38 Ericsson Radio Systems AB Fax: +46 8 404 95 30 F $B3SSH (Batan 6, Kista Mob: +46 70 533 91 12 S-164 80 STOCKHOLM Hans.E.Andersson@era.ericsson.se _____________________________________________________________________