US Patent 7586868 Method and apparatus for controlling distributed transcoders

A wireless communication system comprises an infrastructure that includes a first network element that is upstream of a second network element, wherein the first network element comprises a first transcoder and the second network element comprises a second transcoder. The communication system controls a transcoding of voice by determining a first bearer type supported by the first transcoder, determining a second bearer format type mutually supported by the infrastructure and a mobile station serviced by the infrastructure, and selecting one of the first transcoder and the second transcoder to transcode the voice based on the first bearer format type and the second bearer format type.