Method to expand an audience in a communication system network

Claim 1

In a network of communication systems that are operably coupled via a central controller, wherein each communication system includes a plurality of communication units that are arranged into communication groups, a limited number of communication resources that are transceived via a limited number of repeaters, and a communication resource allocator that allocates via the central controller the limited number of communication resources among the plurality of communication units, a method that expands an audience of a predetermined communication, the method comprises the steps of: a) transmitting, by a communication unit of a first communication group within a first communication system, a predetermined communication request to the central controller via the communication resource allocator of the first communication system; b) when the request is received by the central controller, accessing, by the central controller, an expanded audience database to determine communication groups that are to be combined with the first communication group based on the predetermined communication request to produce combined communication groups; c) when the audience of the predetermined communication is to be expanded, accessing, by the central controller, an adjacent communication system database to determine communication systems that are adjacent to the first communication system to produce adjacent communication systems; and d) when the audience of the predetermined communication is to be expanded, combining, by the central controller, the combined communication groups but only in the adjacent communication systems such that only communication units in the first communication system and communication units in the adjacent sites of the combined communication groups participate in the predetermined communication.