System and method of communications within a virtual environment

• US 20080005237A1
• Filed: 06/28/2006
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Thrasher, Nathan L., Borys, Nick J., Liebbe, James L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,739,339 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/148 Migration or transfer of sessions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion

Abstract

A system and method of dynamic communications within a virtual environment. The virtual environment provides at least two virtual communities each having an associated cross protocol proxy server and a cross community server that cooperate to allow collaboration between participants within the virtual environment using multiple collaboration technology applications. Ad-hoc log-on of groups of individual participants under one community user name is provided to allow different communication protocols to be used and information to be shared across at least two virtual communities.

Claims

1. A system for communications in a virtual environment comprising:

a first virtual community;

at least one subsequent virtual community in collaborative communication with the first virtual community, wherein the first and at least one subsequent virtual community each have an associated at least one client each in operative communication with at least one cross protocol proxy server and with at least one cross community proxy server;

at least two cross protocol proxy servers, a first and at least a second proxy server that each operate to provide cross protocol communication between each associated client within each of the first and the at least one subsequent virtual communities; and

at least one cross community proxy server providing a cross community protocol for cross community communications between each of the first and the subsequent virtual communities.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of subsequent virtual communities.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one subsequent virtual community comprises:

at least one second virtual community.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first virtual community and subsequent virtual communities define the virtual environment.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the clients further comprise:

specific collaborative technology associated with one or more groups of individual participants.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the clients comprise:

ad-hoc collaborative technology associated with one or more individual participants.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a first Group User Identification (ID) associated with each of a plurality of individual and groups of individual participants within the first virtual community.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a first message packet associated with the first Group User ID communicated from the first virtual community to the at least a second virtual community.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

at least a second Group User Identification (ID) associated with each of a plurality of individual and groups of individual participants within the at least one subsequent virtual community.

10. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

at least a second message packet associated with at least a second Group User ID communicated from the at least one subsequent virtual community to the first virtual community.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of clients each respectively associated with the first and the at least one subsequent virtual community.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first cross protocol proxy server provides the ability of each of the plurality of clients within the first virtual community to communicate with each other within the first virtual community independent of collaboration application technology protocols used by each of the respective clients.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein at least a second cross protocol proxy server provides the ability of each of the plurality of clients within the subsequent virtual community to communicate with each other within the subsequent virtual community independent of collaboration application technology protocols used by each of the respective clients.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one cross proxy community server operates to allow clients within the first virtual community to communicate with clients within at least a second virtual community across different communication protocols.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the cross community proxy server allows each client within each of the first and subsequent virtual communities respectively to log-in to each of the virtual communities collectively using a Group User ID.

16. A Method for communicating within a virtual environment comprising the steps:

providing a first virtual community having a plurality of clients associated with the first virtual community;

providing a at least a subsequent virtual community having a plurality of clients associated with the subsequent virtual community;

using a cross community proxy to send a message packet between the first and the subsequent virtual communities.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

associating each of a plurality of individual and groups of participants individual within each of the first and the subsequent virtual communities respectively with a first and at least a second Group User ID.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

communicating a first message packet associated with the first Group User ID from the first virtual community to at least a second virtual community.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

communicating at least a second message packet associated with the subsequent Group User ID from the subsequent virtual community to the subsequent virtual community.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of:

associating an individual participant user ID with of a plurality of participants within each of the virtual communities; and

suppressing an individual participant'"'"'s user ID from the message packet sent from an associated individual participant within one of either the first or the subsequent virtual communities.

21. A method of communicating within a virtual environment comprising the steps of:

providing a first virtual community having a plurality of clients associated with the first virtual community;

providing at least a subsequent virtual community having a plurality of clients associated with the subsequent virtual community, wherein the first and the subsequent virtual communities define the virtual environment; and

sending a message packet to individual participants within the virtual environment via a community proxy associated with Group User ID.