Systems and methods for dynamic latency reduction for conferencing

• US 10,454,978 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2017
• Issued: 10/22/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: inContact Incorporated (Nice Ltd)
• Original Assignee: inContact Incorporated (Nice Ltd)
• Inventors: Page, Matthew Lawrence, Johnson, Michael Keith
• Primary Examiner(s): Chery, Dady
• Application Number:
  US15/819,206
• Publication Number:
  US 20190158546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 700 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/103 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1036 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1046 Call controllers; Call servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1093 by adding participants; by removing participants
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• 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: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5081 Inform conference party of participants, e.g. of change of participants conducting a computer conference, e.g. admission detection, H04L12/1822

Abstract

Methods and systems for reducing latency during conference calls are provided. The method and system can involve a conference call coordinator that evaluates the regions of participants in the call each time a call is added or dropped and transfers the conference call to a media server in the appropriate region.

Claims

1. A method of reducing latency during a conference call, the method comprising:

receiving, by a conference call coordinator, an indicator that one user device of a plurality of user devices participating in the conference call has joined or left the conference, wherein the conference call is served by a first media server;

determining, by the conference call coordinator, whether the first media server continues to service the conference call or whether to move the conference call to a second media server based on whether the conference call has a majority of user devices in a geographical region of the first media server, wherein determining whether the conference call has a majority of user devices in a geographical region of the first media server comprises;

a) determining all border devices servicing the plurality of devices, and

b) for each border device, evaluating a media stream Internet Protocol (IP) address to determine the corresponding geographical region; and

if the conference call is to be moved, determining a media server to move the conference call to based on availability of one or more media servers servicing the plurality of user devices and moving the conference call to the second media server serving the geographic region of the majority of user devices.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein moving the conference call to the second media server further comprises:

transmitting to the second media server, by the conference call coordinator, a command to take over servicing the conference call and transferring media streams to the second media server via a Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) target refresh message.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the region to move the conference call to is further based on the subnet values of media streams.

4. A system for reducing latency during a conference call, the system comprising:

a plurality of user devices that allow users to connect to the conference call;

a first media server that serves the conference calls;

a conference call coordinator that;

i) receives an indication that one device of a plurality of user devices has joined or left the conference call,

ii) determines whether the first media server continues to service the conference call or whether to move the conference call to a second media server based on whether the conference call has a majority of user devices in a geographical region of the first media server, wherein determining whether the conference call has a majority of user devices in a geographical region of the first media server comprises;

a) determining all border devices servicing the plurality of devices, and

b) for each border device, evaluating a media stream Internet Protocol am address to determine the corresponding geographical region, and

iii) moves the conference based on availability of one or more media servers servicing the plurality of user devices and transferring the conference call; and

a second media server to serve a transferred conference call.

5. The system of claim 4 further comprising:

a plurality of border devices that serve one or more of the plurality of devices, and wherein the conference call coordinator determines whether the first media server continues to service the conference call based on a geographical region of the respective border device of the plurality of border devices, the geographical region as evaluated from the Real-Time Protocol (RTP) Internet Protocol (IP) of the respective border device.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the conference call coordinator transmits a command to the second media server to take over servicing the conference call and media streams to the second media server via a Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) target refresh message.

7. The system of claim 4 where the region to move the conference call to is further based on the subnet value of media streams at the interior of the border device.

8. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media comprising instructions that are executable to cause one or more processors to:

receive, by a conference call coordinator, an indicator that one user device of a plurality of user devices participating in the conference call has joined or left the conference, wherein the conference call is served by a first media server;

determine, by the conference call coordinator, whether the first media server continues to service the conference call or whether to move the conference call to a second media server based on whether the conference call has a majority of user devices in a geographical region of the first media server, wherein determining whether the conference call has a majority of user devices in a geographical region of the first media server comprises;

a) determine all border devices servicing the plurality of devices, and

b) for each border device, evaluate a media stream Internet Protocol (IP) address to determine the corresponding geographical region; and

if the conference call is to be moved, determine a media server to move the conference call to based on availability of one or more media servers servicing the plurality of user devices and moving the conference call to the second media server serving the geographic region of the majority of user devices.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 8 where the instructions when executed further cause one or more processors to:

transmit to the second media server, by the conference call coordinator, a command to take over servicing the conference call and transferring media streams to the second media server via a Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) target refresh message.

10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 8 where the instructions when executed further cause one or more processors to determine the region to move the conference call to is further based on the subnet values of media streams.