Selective transmission of multiparty VOIP communications

• US 20070280210A1
• Filed: 05/30/2006
• Published: 12/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Criddle, Linda, Milstein, David, Forbes, Scott C.
• Application Number:
  US11/443,590
• Publication Number:
  US 20070280210A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/356
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1094 Inter-user-equipment sessions transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2044 Group features, e.g. closed user group
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/465 Arrangements for simultaneously calling a number of substations until an answer is obtained
• 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

Abstract

Generally described, embodiments of the present invention provide a method system for selectively transmitting data packets of a conversation to clients in a group. A group identifier is associated with a group and data packets exchanged during the conversation are processed and transmitted according to the group identifiers included in the data packet. Clients associated with a device group are determined and a group identifier is created to represent the group. Processing and selectively transmitting data packets exchanged during the conversation according to the group identifiers includes determining the group identifiers contained in a received data packet and transmitting the data packet to the clients having associated with the identified group.

Claims

1. A method for selectively transmitting data packets of a conversation to clients, comprising:

(a) creating a group and associating at least one client with the group;

(b) defining a group identifier for the group; and

(c) transmitting data packets of the conversation to clients associated with the group.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein defining a group identifier for the group comprises:

(a) generating a unique identifier to be used as the group identifier;

(b) creating a group list identifying the associated clients; and

(c) associating the group identifier with the group list.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a client is added to an existing group by associating the client with the group and identifying the client in the group list.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein metadata for a client is used to automatically determine if the client should be added to an existing group.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the metadata for the client is provided as contextual data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a set of rules is used to automatically determine if a client should be added to an existing group.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the set of rules is provided as contextual data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is implemented by an affiliation service operated by a service provider.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is implemented by that operates on each device in the conversation.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting data packets comprises:

(a) receiving data packet from a client;

(b) determining if a group identifier is included in the data packet; and

(c) transmitting the data packet to the clients associated with the identified group.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

if it is determined that there is no group identifier in the data packet, the data packet is not transmitted.

12. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable components for processing data packets exchanged between clients in a conversation comprising:

(a) an affiliation component creating a group identifier and associating a plurality of clients with the group identifiers;

(b) a data packet processing component determining a group identifier in a data packet; and

(c) a transmitting component transmitting the data packet to the clients associated with the determined group identifier.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein a controller component controls the addition of clients to an existing group.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein a controller component determines if a client in a group may also become a controller of the group.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein a set of rules automatically controls the addition of clients to an existing group.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the set of rules for automatically controlling the addition of clients to an existing group is provided as metadata.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the metadata is provided as contextual data.

18. A system for selectively transmitting data packets of a conversation to clients, comprising:

(a) a plurality of groups;

(b) group IDs for the groups; and

(c) at least one controller for each of the groups.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one controller controls whether a client may be added to the group.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one controller controls which clients in the group can also become controllers.