Data center centroid metric calculations for PSTN services

• US 10,038,792 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2016
• Issued: 07/31/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Hassan, Amer, Bridges, Gareth Lyndon Eadred, Clark, Bradford R., Allen, Timothy R., Penar, Russell Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): ADDY, THJUAN KNOWLIN
• Application Number:
  US15/341,633
• Publication Number:
  US 20180124249A1
• Time in Patent Office: 636 Days
• Field of Search: 37920201, 37920712, 37921201, 37922101, 37922104, 37922102, 37922001, 379219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5063 Centrally initiated conference, i.e. Conference server dials participants computer conference organisation arrangements H04L12/1818
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

An initial data center is selected to host an online conference. This data center can be selected based on the geographical locations of the participants. Typically, the data center closest to the centroid of the participants is selected. During (or before) the conference call, an ‘effective’ centroid is calculated based on effective distances. Effective distances are based on a combination of the physical distance between a participant and a data center, and an effective distance factor (or weighting) that is based on one or more of the participant'"'"'s device/driver type, the participant'"'"'s network type, the participant'"'"'s connection type, and a participant weighting factor.

Claims

1. A method of selecting a data center to host a conference call, comprising:

selecting, from among a plurality of data centers, an initial data center to host a conference call having participants on the conference call that include a first plurality of participants each associated with one of a first plurality of participant locations, the selection being based at least in part on the first plurality of participant locations; and

,

selecting, from among the plurality of data centers, a second data center to host the conference call, the selection being based on a first plurality of effective distances each associated with one of the first plurality of participants.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of effective distances are based at least in part on device types, network types, or connection types associated with each of the first plurality of participants.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of effective distances are based, at least in part, on a combination of distances between the plurality of data centers and the first plurality of participant locations modified by effective distance factors corresponding to each of the first plurality of participants.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining participant profiles for each of the participants, wherein the participant profiles are based, at least in part, on information reported by client devices associated with the participants, and wherein the first plurality of participant locations is based on anticipated locations used in selecting the initial data center are based on locations identified in the participant profiles.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of effective distances are based at least in part on weighting factors associated with each of the first plurality of participants.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of effective distances are based at least in part on a packet error rate associated with each of the first plurality of participants.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to at least a change occurring in at least one of the participants on the conference call such that the participants on the conference call becomes a second plurality of participants, identifying, based at least in part on a second plurality of effective distance factors of a second plurality of participant profiles corresponding to the second plurality of participants, a third data center; and

,

handing-off the conference call to the third data center if the third data center differs from the second data center.

8. A communication system, comprising:

an initial data center of a plurality of data centers to initially host a conference call having participants on the conference call that include a first plurality of participants each associated with one of a first plurality of participant locations, a selection of the initial data center being based at least in part on the first plurality of participant locations; and

,

a handoff system to select an identified data center from the plurality of data centers based on effective distances between each of the first plurality of participants and the identified data center, the identified data center to host the conference call.

9. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the selection of the identified data center is based on a first centroid determined from effective distances between each of the first plurality of participants and the identified data center.

10. The communication system of claim 9, wherein the selection of the initial data center is based on a second centroid determined from the first plurality of participant locations.

11. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the effective distances between each of the first plurality of participants and the identified data center are based at least in part on weighting factors associated with each of the first plurality of participants.

12. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the effective distances between each of the first plurality of participants and the identified data center are based at least in part on connection types associated with each of the first plurality of participants.

13. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the effective distances between each of the first plurality of participants and the identified data center are based at least in part on network types associated with each of the first plurality of participants.

14. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the effective distances between each of the first plurality of participants and the identified data center are based at least in part on device types associated with each of the first plurality of participants.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon for selecting a data center to host a conference call that, when executed by a computer, at least instruct the computer to:

receive effective distance information about each of a plurality of participants that are on the conference call, the effective distance information associating each combination of each of the plurality of participants and a plurality of data centers to a respective effective distance indicator; and

,

based on the effective distance indicators for a data center of the plurality of the data centers, select the data center to host the conference call.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the computer is further instructed to:

generate the respective effective distance indicators based at least in part on device type information received from the plurality of participants.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the computer is further instructed to:

generate the respective effective distance indicators based at least in part on network type information received from the plurality of participants.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the computer is further instructed to:

generate the respective effective distance indicators based at least in part on weighting factors associated with each of the first plurality of participants.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the computer is further instructed to:

generate the respective effective distance indicators based at least in part on network connection type information received from the plurality of participants.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the effective distance indicators correspond to a centroid based on the location of each of the plurality of participants and one or more of:

device type information, network type information, weighting factors associated with the first plurality of participants, and network connection type.