Method of, and system for, webcasting with just-in-time resource provisioning, automated telephone signal acquistion and streaming, and fully-automated event archival

• US 20040193683A1
• Filed: 04/19/2002
• Published: 09/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Blumofe, Robert D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,483,945 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• 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 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1096 Supplementary features, e.g. call forwarding or call holding systems providing special services or facilities to telephony subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4038 with floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5009 Adding a party to an existing conference conducting a computer conference, e.g. admission detection H04L12/1822
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5072 Multiple active speakers conducting a computer conference, e.g. Admission detection H04L12/1822
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/123 where the packet-switched network is an Internet Protocol Multimedia System-type network

Abstract

The present invention implements a multimedia business communications platform that enables conference casting over a network. End users or so-called “audience members” participate in conference casts from anywhere on the Internet or behind an enterprise firewall using a standard Web browser running a streaming media player. The conference platform typically includes a number of subsystems: a Web reservation subsystem, a voice server subsystem, a content storage subsystem, a monitoring data subsystem, an attendee access subsystem, and an archive subsystem. Web reservation subsystem provides a mechanism that enables an entity to make an event reservation. Web reservation subsystem typically includes a database and an associated database management system. Voice server subsystem validates a user and converts an incoming telephone signal (i.e., the conference call) to an output data stream. Attendee access subsystem responds to attendee requests and returns information (e.g., a data structure such as a stream metafile) that directs an attendee'"'"'s streaming media player on how to join the conference cast. Content storage subsystem is used to manage event information and, under the control of the archive subsystem, to archive the event files. The monitoring data subsystem comprises a set of monitoring agents distributed throughout the network. Using these components, the system implements just-in-time resource provisioning, automated signal acquisition and streaming, and automated archiving upon event completion.

Claims

1. Apparatus, comprising:

a first subsystem accessible over a computer network and including code for enabling an entity to reserve an event, to obtain an event identifier, an access code, and an attendee URL, and to initiate storage of an event information file associated with the event;

a second subsystem connectable to a telephone network and including code for enabling the entity to initiate the event, without access to the event information file, by entering the event identifier and access code, and code for generating a data stream from an audio signal derived from a user'"'"'s speech; and

a third subsystem accessible over the computer network and including code responsive to a client browser requesting the attendee URL for returning to the client browser a data structure including a stream URL, wherein the stream URL enables a streaming media player to obtain the data stream.

2. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the first subsystem also includes code for enabling the entity to identify a given format for the data stream, and the code for generating the data stream from the audio signal in the second subsystem is an encoder associated with the given format.

3. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the second subsystem includes code for verifying that a value derived from a one-way hash of the event identifier entered by the entity together with a shared secret matches the access code entered by the entity.

4. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the second subsystem comprises a set of one or more servers.

5. The apparatus as described in claim 4 wherein each of the servers includes a telephone control engine for playing voice response files requesting entry by the entity of the event identifier and the access code.

6. The apparatus as described in claim 5 wherein the telephone control engine writes the data stream to a storage disk associated with the voice server during the event.

7. The apparatus as described in claim 6 wherein the telephone control engine uploads the data stream from the storage disk upon a given interruption of the audio signal.

8. The apparatus as described in claim 7 further including a fourth subsystem accessible over the computer network and including code for generating a directory for the event, and code for storing in the directory the event information file and the uploaded data stream.

9. The apparatus as described in claim 8 further including a fifth subsystem accessible over the computer network and including code for creating an archive of the event and for storing the archive in the directory.

10. The apparatus as described in claim 9 wherein the code for creating an archive associates given metadata with a data stream, wherein the given metadata identifies a given portion of the data stream for use in the archive.

11. The apparatus as described in claim 10 wherein attendee URL is used to obtain access to the archive.

12. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein each of the first, second and third subsystems has two or more instances.

13. The apparatus as described in claim 12 further including a traffic manager to select a given instance of the first, second and third subsystems.

14. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the data structure is a metafile, and the metafile includes a one or more stream URLs, wherein each stream URL is associated with a given stream associated with the event.

15. In a conference system including a Web-based reservation system accessible over a computer network for enabling an entity to reserve an event and to obtain an attendee URL, the improvement comprising:

a set of one or more voice server subsystems each connectable to a telephone network, wherein each voice server subsystem includes a set of one or more voice servers, each voice server having a storage disk associated therewith, a telephone interface for receiving an audio signal, an encoder for generating a data stream from the audio signal, and code (a) for validating a user-entered access code, (b) for writing the data stream to the storage disk, and (c) initiating an upload of the data stream from the disk upon the occurrence of a given interruption in the audio signal; and

a set of one or more attendee access subsystems each connectable to the computer network and including code responsive to a client browser requesting the attendee URL for returning a data structure including a stream URL at which a streaming media player associated with the client browser can obtain the data stream;

a set of one or more archive subsystems each connectable to the computer network and including code (a) for creating a directory for the event, (b) for storing in the directory an event information file, (c) for creating an archive of the event; and

(d) for storing the archive in the directory for subsequent access.

16. In the conference system as described in claim 15 wherein at least two (2) voice server subsystems are active during the event to generate a set of data streams.

17. In the conference system as described in claim 16 wherein the code for creating an archive of the event in each archive subsystem associates metadata with each of the set of data streams to control how the archive is constructed from the set of data streams.

18. In the conference system as described in claim 15 further including a global traffic manager for selecting a given attendee access subsystem to respond to a given client browser request.

19. In the conference system as described in claim 16 wherein the global traffic manager is used to select a given content storage subsystem in which the directory is located.

20. In the conference system as described in claim 15 wherein each of the voice server subsystems are associated with a given telephone number.

21. In the conference system as described in claim 15 wherein all of the voice server subsystems are associated with a given telephone number.

22. In the conference system as described in claim 15 wherein the code for validating the user-entered access code does not require access to any external resource.

23. In the conference system as described in claim 15 further including a monitoring data subsystem for collecting a dataset associated with each data stream being output from a voice server.

24. In the conference system as described in claim 23 wherein the dataset includes an event identifier, a streaming media format, and a port or publishing point designation.

25. In the conference system as described in claim 15 wherein each attendee access subsystem includes code for authenticating whether a user of the client browser is authorized to access the data stream.

26. A method of conference calling, comprising:

reserving an event (a) by providing an entity with an event identifier, access code and attendee URL, (b) by generating an event information file, and (c) creating a directory associated with the event in which the event information file is stored;

initiating the event (a) by verifying, without access to the directory, that an access code entered by a host is a given function of the event identifier entered by the host; and

(b) upon verification, encoding speech data into a data stream;

enabling access to the data stream (a) by returning to a client browser launched to the attendee URL a data structure including a stream URL at which the data stream can be obtained; and

generating an archive upon completion of the event.

27. The method as described in claim 26 further including the steps of:

generating a copy of the data stream as the event proceeds; and

automatically uploading the copy to a central store upon a given interruption of the speech data.

28. The method as described in claim 27 wherein the step of generating the archive includes:

generating metadata identifying a given portion of the data stream for use in the archive.

29. The method as described in claim 28 further including the steps of:

modifying the event information file to include the metadata; and

storing the archive in the directory.

30. The method as described in claim 26 wherein the speech data is encoded into a plurality of data streams.

31. The method as described in claim 30 wherein the step of generating an archive includes generating metadata identifying a given portion of each of the plurality of data streams.

32. The method as described in claim 26 further including:

having an end user access the archive by opening a client browser to the attendee URL.

33. The method as described in claim 32 further including:

restricting access to the archive for a time period specified in the event information file.

34. The method as described in claim 26 wherein the given function generates a one-way hash of the event identifier and a shared secret.

35. The method as described in claim 26 further including:

restricting access to the data stream to an authenticated entity.

36. The method as described in claim 26 wherein completion of the event occurs upon occurrence of a user-initiated event.

37. The method as described in claim 26 wherein completion of the event occurs upon a given timeout following termination of the speech data.

38. A method of conference calling wherein a given event has been reserved by providing an event with an event identifier, access code and attendee URL, comprising:

initiating the event at one or more locations (a) by verifying an access code entered by a host is a given function of the event identifier entered by the host; and

(b) upon verification, encoding speech data into a data stream;

enabling access to the data stream (a) by returning to a client browser launched to the attendee URL a data structure including one or more stream URLs at which the data stream can be obtained;

as the event progresses, storing a copy of each data stream in a local data store;

upon interruption of the speech data, transferring a copy of the stored data stream to a central storage; and

upon completion of the event, automatically generating an archive.

39. The method as described in claim 38 wherein the step of automatically generating an archive includes:

defining metadata for each data stream copy that defines what portion of each data stream is to be used for the archive; and

storing the data stream copies and the metadata in a directory of the central store uniquely associated with the event identifier.

40. The method as described in claim 38 further including the step of enabling access to the archive upon entry of the attendee URL.

41. The method as described in claim 38 further including the step of restricting access to the archive after a given time period has elapsed as determined by information in the event information file.

42. The method as described in claim 38 wherein the data streams are streamed over a content delivery network.