Distributed network system architecture for collaborative computing

• US 20060248144A1
• Filed: 07/03/2006
• Published: 11/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: WebEx Communications Incorporated (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhao, Bin, Yuan, Zheng, Zhu, Min, Shen, Jian, Yan, Shi, Yang, Guanghong, Li, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 7,523,163 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A distributed collaborative computer system is provided that comprises a plurality of server computers interconnected via a high-speed link. Client computers can connect to any available server computer and start or join a conference hosted on either the server computer to which the client computer is connected or any other server in the system. As a result, the system and method of the present invention is easily scalable to support an arbitrary number of participants to a conference by merely adding the appropriate number of server computers to the system. In addition, by replicating the conference information on more than one server computer, the single point of failure limitation is eliminated. In fact, if a server hosting or participating in a conference malfunctions, the failure is detected by other server computers and the client computer is able to reconnect to the conference through a new server computer.

Claims

1. A server system accessible to a plurality of client computers via a wide area network to provide the plurality of client computers collaborative computing, comprising:

a processor means for launching a plurality of collaborative servers, wherein each collaborative server is operable to host at least a portion of an on-line conference among the plurality of client computers;

a processor means to support at least one service for the on-line conference; and

a processor means for detecting failures of the collaborative servers and upon detecting failure of one of the collaborative servers, to send a request to the means for launching a plurality of collaborative servers to launch a new collaborative server.

2. The server system of claim 1, wherein the means for launching a plurality of collaborative servers includes one or more process managers.

3. The server system of claim 1, wherein the means to support at least one service for the on-line conference includes one or more application servers.

4. The server system of claim 1, wherein the means for detecting failures of the collaborative servers includes one or more meeting managers.

5. The server system of claim 1, wherein the server system includes one or more web servers accessible to the plurality of client computers via the wide area network.

6. The server system of claim 1, further comprising a means for allowing the plurality of collaborative servers to communicate with each other.

7. The server system of claim 1, wherein the at least one service for the on-line conference comprises one of document viewing, file sharing, video, voice over IP, telephony, polling, chat, and application sharing.

8. The server system of claim 1 wherein the server system is configured to maintain state information for the collaborative servers and upon failure of one of the collaborative servers, to provide state information for the failed collaborative server to the new collaborative server.

9. The server system of claim 3 wherein the process means for launching a plurality of collaborative servers is further configured to launch a plurality of the application servers.

10. The server system of claim 9 wherein upon detecting failure of one of the application servers, the meeting manager reconnects collaborative servers connected to the failed application server to the new application server.