Communication system for oil and gas platforms

• US 20080261576A1
• Filed: 04/18/2008
• Published: 10/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Wengrovitz, Michael S.
• Application Number:
  US12/105,341
• Publication Number:
  US 20080261576A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• 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

Abstract

Communications between oil platform operators and radio users on oil platforms are facilitated using a conference server that provides software-based conference rooms enabling the oil platform operators to speak and listen to desired radio users and other oil platform operators.

Claims

1. A conference server that facilitates communication on oil platforms, comprising:

a conference room operable to manage a conference call between oil platform operators and radio channels, each of said radio channels having a respective group of radio users communicating with each other thereon, said conference room further including whisper rooms, each being communicatively coupled to one of said oil platform operators or said radio channels;

an application program interface communicatively coupled to receive conferencing instructions from one or more of said oil platform operators; and

processing circuitry coupled to said conference room and said application program interface, said processing circuitry operable to create said conference room and said whisper rooms, and further operable to create pseudo-legs between ones of said whisper rooms to enable each of said oil platform operators to speak and listen to desired ones of said radio channels and other ones of said oil platform operators based on said conferencing instructions;

wherein said processing circuitry is further operable to process and exchange Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) real-time media streams between said oil platform operators and said radio users through said whisper rooms and said pseudo-legs.

2. The conference server of claim 1, further comprising:

an Internet Protocol (IP) network interface coupled to an IP network over which said VoIP real-time media streams are transmitted and received.

3. The conference server of claim 2, wherein said IP network interface further coupled to a radio network including said radio users and providing said radio channels via at least one radio adapter configured to convert said VoIP real-time media streams to a format associated with said radio network.

4. The conference server of claim 3, wherein said radio users are communicating on said radio channels using two-way radio devices.

5. The conference server of claim 2, wherein said application program interface receives said conferencing instructions from an oil platform server via said IP network interface, said oil platform server being coupled via said IP network to oil platform control clients running on computing devices operated by said oil platform operators, said oil platform server receiving operator instructions initiated by said oil platform operators on said oil platform control clients and generating said conferencing instructions in response thereto.

6. The conference server of claim 5, wherein said conferencing instructions instruct said processing circuitry to set-up or tear down ones of said pseudo-legs, each of said pseudo-legs enabling one-way voice communication between two of said whisper rooms.

7. The conference server of claim 1, further comprising:

a conferencing software module executable by said processing circuitry to create and manage said conference room, said whisper rooms and said pseudo-legs; and

a memory device within which said conference room is created.

8. The conference server of claim 1, wherein said VoIP real-time media streams include voice streams and data.

9. The conference server of claim 8, wherein said data includes text and multi-media that enables data collaboration between said oil platform operators, said data collaboration providing one or more of instant messaging, presentation sharing, desktop sharing and video.

10. A communications system facilitating communication on oil platforms, comprising:

an oil platform server communicatively coupled to receive operator instructions initiated by oil platform operators, said oil platform server operable to generate conferencing instructions based on said operator instructions; and

a conference server coupled to said oil platform server via an Internet Protocol (IP) network to receive said operator instructions, said conference server operable, based on said conferencing instructions, to create a conference room for managing a conference call between said oil platform operators and radio channels, each of said radio channels having a respective group of radio users communicating with each other thereon, said conference room including whisper rooms, each being communicatively coupled to one of said oil platform operators or said radio channels, said conference room further including pseudo-legs between ones of said whisper rooms to enable each of said oil platform operators to speak and listen to desired ones of said radio channels and other ones of said oil platform operators;

wherein said conference server is further operable to process and exchange Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) real-time media streams between said oil platform operators and said radio users through said whisper rooms and said pseudo-legs.

11. The communication system of claim 10, further comprising:

radio adapters coupled to a radio network including two-way radio devices operated by said radio users, each of said radio adapters communicating with a group of said radio users on a respective one of said radio channels and each of said radio adapters for converting media between a first format associated with said radio network and a second format associated with said Internet Protocol (IP) network to transmit and receive said VoIP real-time media streams between said two-way radio devices and said conference server.

12. The communication system of claim 11, further comprising:

oil platform control clients running on computing devices operated by said oil platform operators, each of said oil platform clients operable to generate said respective operator instructions based on input from said respective oil platform operators.

13. The communication system of claim 12, wherein each of said oil platform control clients provides a graphical user interface to said respective one of said oil platform operators, said graphical user interface enabling said respective one of said oil platform operators to enter said respective operator instructions.

14. The communication system of claim 13, wherein said operator instructions include selecting one of said radio channels on which to listen or speak.

15. The communication system of claim 13, wherein each of said oil platform control clients includes a softphone for transmitting and receiving said VoIP real-time media streams between said computing devices and said conference server.

16. The communication system of claim 13, wherein said graphical user interface is presented on a touch screen of said computing device.

17. The communication system of claim 13, wherein:

said VoIP real-time media streams include voice streams and data, said data including text and multi-media; and

said oil platform control clients enable data collaboration between said oil platform operators, said data collaboration providing one or more of instant messaging, presentation sharing, desktop sharing and video.

18. The communication system of claim 10, wherein said oil platform server maintains time-dependent matrices including real-valued coefficients describing ones of said oil platform operators currently speaking to ones of said radio channels, ones of said radio channels listened to by ones of said oil platform operators and ones of said oil platform operators heard by other ones of said oil platform operators.

19. The communication system of claim 18, wherein said oil platform server defines said real-valued coefficients within said time-dependent matrices based on said operator instructions and accesses said real-valued coefficients to generate said conferencing instructions to set-up and tear down ones of said pseudo-legs and apply respective gains to each of said pseudo-legs.

20. The communication system of claim 10, further comprising:

a back-up oil platform server coupled to back-up said oil platform server; and

a back-up conference server coupled to back-up said conference server.

21. A method for facilitating communication on oil platforms, comprising:

receiving an establish instruction to establish a conference call between oil platform operators and radio channels, each of said radio channels having a respective group of radio users communicating thereon;

creating a conference room for said conference call;

receiving whisper room instructions to create respective whisper rooms in said conference room for each of said oil platform operators and said radio channels;

receiving conferencing instructions from said oil platform operators to create pseudo-legs between ones of said whisper rooms to enable each of said oil platform operators to speak and listen to desired ones of said radio channels and other ones of said oil platform operators;

establishing a connection between said oil platform operators and said radio channels over an Internet Protocol (IP) network via said conference room; and

exchanging Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) real-time media streams between said oil platform operators and said radio users through said whisper rooms and said pseudo-legs.