On demand in-band signaling for conferences

• US 10,171,526 B1
• Filed: 06/27/2017
• Issued: 01/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Atlassian Pty Ltd (d/b/a Confluence) (Atlassian Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Atlassian Pty Ltd (d/b/a Confluence) (Atlassian Corporation)
• Inventors: Ivov, Emil, Grozev, Boris
• Primary Examiner(s): Woo, Stella L.
• Application Number:
  US15/635,045
• Publication Number:
  US 20180375908A1
• Time in Patent Office: 553 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/152 Multipoint control units therefor

Abstract

A computer implemented method comprises transmitting initial signaling data for a video conference from a signaling server to a plurality of client computing devices, the initial signaling data omitting identifiers for media data, establishing, by a media server, the video conference with the plurality of client computing devices, the plurality of client computing devices having used the initial signaling data to connect to the media server, sending, by the media server, media data for a subset of the plurality of client computing devices to the plurality of client computing devices, sending, by the media server, identifiers of the media data to the plurality of client computing devices.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

transmitting initial signaling data for a video conference using Web Real Time Communication (WebRTC) from a signaling server over a WebRTC signaling channel to a plurality of client computing devices, wherein the initial signaling data comprises data needed for a client computing device to connect to the video conference and wherein the initial signaling data omits identifiers for media data;

establishing, by a media server, the video conference with the plurality of client computing devices, the plurality of client computing devices having used the initial signaling data to connect to the media server;

sending, by the media server, media data for a subset of the plurality of client computing devices to the plurality of client computing devices;

sending, by the media server, identifiers of the media data to the plurality of client computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

changing, by the media server, the subset of the plurality of client computing devices to generate an updated subset;

sending, by the media server, updated media data for the updated subset to the plurality of client computing devices;

sending, by the media server, updated identifiers of the updated media data to the plurality of client computing devices.

3. The method of claim 1, the initial signaling data comprising one or more of:

a media type in use, a certificate fingerprint, and a credential.

4. The method of claim 1, the identifiers comprising one or more of:

a Synchronization Source Identifier (SSRC), a Media Stream Identifier (MSID), and a client computing device identifier.

5. The method of claim 1, the media server using an in-band data channel to send the identifiers of the media data.

6. The method of claim 1, the media server using Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE).

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to receiving the identifiers, updating a mapping by each of the plurality of client computing devices.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of client computing devices comprises over 20 client computing devices.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the signaling server and the media server are separate servers.

10. A computer system comprising:

a signaling server, comprising one or more processors and one or more memories storing one or more sequences of instructions for in-band signaling, which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform;

transmitting initial signaling data for a video conference using Web Real Time Communication (WebRTC) over a WebRTC signaling channel to a plurality of client computing devices, wherein the initial signaling data comprises data needed for a client computing device to connect to the video conference and wherein the initial signaling data omitting identifiers for media data;

a media server, comprising one or more processors and one or more memories storing one or more sequences of instructions for in-band signaling, which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform;

establishing the video conference with the plurality of client computing devices, the plurality of client computing devices having used the initial signaling data to connect to the media server;

sending media data for a subset of the plurality of client computing devices to the plurality of client computing devices;

sending identifiers of the media data to the plurality of client computing devices.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

Changing the subset of the plurality of client computing devices to generate an updated subset;

sending updated media data for the updated subset to the plurality of client computing devices;

sending updated identifiers of the updated media data to the plurality of client computing devices.

12. The system of claim 10, the initial signaling data comprising one or more of:

a media type in use, a certificate fingerprint, and a credential.

13. The system of claim 10, the identifiers comprising one or more of:

a Synchronization Source Identifier (SSRC), a Media Stream Identifier (MSID), and a client computing device identifier.

14. The system of claim 10, the media server using an in-band data channel to send the identifiers of the media data.

15. The system of claim 10, the media server using Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE).

16. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

in response to receiving the identifiers, updating a mapping by each of the plurality of client computing devices.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of client computing devices comprises over 20 client computing devices.

18. The system of claim 10 wherein the signaling server and the media server are separate servers.