Capability management for automatic dialing of video and audio point to point/multipoint or cascaded multipoint calls

• US 20060083182A1
• Filed: 05/02/2005
• Published: 04/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lifesize, Inc. (Enghouse Systems Limited)
• Original Assignee: Lifesize, Inc. (Enghouse Systems Limited)
• Inventors: Tracey, Jonathan W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,864,714 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/260
• 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 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/70 Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/142 Constructional details of the terminal equipment, e.g. arrangements of the camera and the display
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/73 Colour balance circuits, e.g. white balance circuits or colour temperature control camera processing pipelines for colour balance H04N23/88

Abstract

In various embodiments, a management system may query connection devices for their capabilities and store the information in a data structure. In some embodiments, the data structure may be in a form of a Deducible Capability Numbering (DCN) number. In some embodiments, the DCN number may describe the capabilities of a connection device using a series of representative numbers. After connecting the connection devices, the management system may continue monitoring capabilities of the connection devices and line failures. The management system may reconnect connection devices based on their capabilities if a line failure occurs.

Claims

1. A method for managing a call, comprising:

storing a data structure for each of at least two connection devices of the call, wherein the data structures comprise first information regarding at least two connection device capabilities;

examining the first information from at least one of the data structures; and

connecting at least two connection devices based on the examining.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data structures comprise first information regarding at least two connection device capabilities selected from a group consisting of:

maximum bandwidth;

number of multipoint ports;

Internet protocol (IP) capabilities;

primary rate interface (PRI);

integrated services digital network (ISDN);

basic rate interface (BRI);

V.35 capability;

V.35 speed,

encryption capability;

public switch telephone network capability (PSTN);

cellular telephone capability; and

status of user subscription.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the connecting comprises:

providing second information to the at least two connection devices regarding how to connect to the conference call;

at least two connection devices connecting to the conference call based on the second information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying the at least two connection devices for one or more capabilities, wherein the querying is performed at least two times at a predetermined rate.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring a line status of a line between the at least two connection devices;

wherein if a connection device is disconnected, examining the first information from the at least two connection devices to determine which connected connection device the disconnected connection device should reconnect to.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

ranking the at least two connection devices, using the first information from the at least two connection devices, according to connectability with other connection devices of the at least two connection devices; and

using at least one rule to determine at least one rank.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the rule is formed based on connectivity needs of the connection devices.

8. A method for managing a conference call, comprising:

assigning a separate number to each of at least two connection devices wherein the number represents at least one connection device capability; and

connecting at least two connection devices using at least one of the assigned numbers.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

querying the at least two connection devices for one or more capabilities;

wherein the querying is performed at least two times at a predetermined rate.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the querying is performed by a management system and wherein the connection devices are queried through a translation matrix.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

monitoring a line status of a line between the at least two connection devices;

wherein if a connection device is disconnected, the assigned numbers are used to determine which connected connection device the disconnected connection device should reconnect to.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the assigned number is comprised of a string of representative numbers.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the representative numbers represent at least two of a group consisting of:

maximum bandwidth;

number of multipoint ports;

Internet protocol (IP) capabilities;

primary rate interface (PRI);

integrated services digital network (ISDN);

basic rate interface (BRI);

V.35 capability;

V.35 speed,

encryption capability;

public switch telephone network capability (PSTN);

cellular telephone capability; and

status of user subscription.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the assigned number comprises a five digit bandwidth indicator, a two digit multipoint indicator, a one digit IP indicator, a two digit PRI indicator, a two digit BRI indicator, a one digit V.35 indicator, a three digit V.35 speed indicator, a one digit encrypt indicator, a one digit PSTN indicator, a one digit cell indicator, and a one digit service indicator.

15. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

ranking the at least two connection devices, using the assigned numbers, according to connectability with other connection devices of the at least two connection devices.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

using at least one rule to determine at least one rank.

17. A system for managing a conference call, comprising:

a management device; and

at least two connection devices coupled to the management device;

wherein the management device stores a data structure for each of the at least two connection devices wherein the data structure represents at least one connection device capability;

wherein the management device connects the at least two connection devices based at least in part on the stored data structures.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the management system queries the at least two connection devices for one or more capabilities.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the system queries the at least two connection devices at least two times at a predetermined rate.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the management system queries the at least two connection devices through a translation matrix.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the management device monitors a line status of a line between the at least two connection devices;

and wherein if a connection device is disconnected, the stored data structures are used by the management device to determine which connected connection device the disconnected connection device should reconnect to.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the data structure is comprised of a string of representative numbers.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the representative numbers represent at least two of a group consisting of:

maximum bandwidth;

number of multipoint ports;

Internet protocol (IP) capabilities;

primary rate interface (PRI);

integrated services digital network (ISDN);

basic rate interface (BRI);

V.35 capability;

V.35 speed,

encryption capability;

public switch telephone network capability (PSTN);

cellular telephone capability; and

status of user subscription.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the number comprises a five digit bandwidth indicator, a two digit multipoint indicator, a one digit IP indicator, a two digit PRI indicator, a two digit BRI indicator, a one digit V.35 indicator, a three digit V.35 speed indicator, a one digit encrypt indicator, a one digit PSTN indicator, a one digit cell indicator, and a one digit service indicator.

25. The system of claim 17, wherein the management system ranks the at least two connection devices, using the data structures, according to connectability with other connection devices of the at least two connection devices.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the management system uses at least one rule to determine at least one rank.

27. The system of claim 17, wherein the at least two connection devices are devices selected from a group consisting of:

wireless Ethernet card;

paging logic;

radio frequency communication logic;

wired Ethernet card;

modem;

digital service line (DSL) device;

Cable modem;

Integrated services digital network (ISDN) device;

asynchronous transfer mode device;

parallel port bus interface;

serial port bus interface;

wired communication device; and

wireless communication device.

28. The system of claim 17, wherein the management system is a connection device.