METHOD, SYSTEM, AND DEVICE FOR CONTROLLING A TOKEN FOR AN AUXILIARY STREAM IN A MULTI-POINT DOUBLE-STREAM CONFERENCE

• US 20100250679A1
• Filed: 06/14/2010
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Device Company Limited (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: WANG, Haifeng
• Granted Patent: US 8,819,133 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/30 using hierarchical techniques, e.g. scalability H04N19/63 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/152 Multipoint control units therefor

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method, a system, and a device for controlling a token for an auxiliary stream in a multi-point double-stream conference. In the multi-point double-stream conference, a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU) receives a token depriving request message, judges whether to execute the token depriving according to the identifier carried in the token depriving request message, and deprives the token when deciding to execute the token depriving. The solution of the present invention effectively solves the problem that the auxiliary stream token is held by a certain conference terminal for a long time and the sending of an emergent and important auxiliary stream is disturbed and provides for the control of the auxiliary stream token in a multi-point double-stream conference to facilitate the need of a user.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a token for an auxiliary stream in a multi-point double-stream conference, wherein a second conference terminal requests the depriving of a token when the token in the multi-point double-stream conference is occupied by a first conference terminal and the auxiliary stream is sent, comprising:

receiving, by a multi-point control unit, MCU, a token depriving request message;

judging, by the MCU, whether to execute token depriving according to an identifier, ID, carried in the token depriving request message; and

depriving the token from the first conference terminal when the MCU decides to deprive the token.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the token depriving request message is sent by the second conference terminal, the method comprises:

receiving, by the MCU, the token depriving request message from the second conference terminal, the message carrying an ID of the second conference terminal; and

judging, by the MCU, whether to deprive the token from the first conference terminal according to the ID of the second conference terminal and an internal policy, depriving the token from the first conference terminal if the MCU decides to deprive the token, and ending the token depriving if the MCU decides not to deprive the token

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the token depriving request message is sent by the second conference terminal, the method comprises:

receiving, by the MCU, the token depriving request message from the second conference terminal, the message carrying the ID that is equivalent to an ID of a chairman conference terminal and can instruct the MCU to execute related operation according to contents of the message; and

depriving, by the MCU, the token from the first conference terminal according to the token depriving request message.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the token depriving request message is sent by a chairman conference terminal, the method comprises:

receiving, by the chairman conference terminal, a token depriving request message carrying the ID of the second conference terminal forwarded by the MCU; and

judging, by the chairman conference terminal, whether to deprive the token from the first conference terminal according to the ID of the second conference terminal and an internal policy, sending the token depriving request message that carries the ID of the chairman conference terminal to the MCU to notify the MCU of depriving the token from the first conference terminal if the chairman conference terminal decides to deprive the token, and ending the token depriving if the chairman conference terminal decides not to deprive the token.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the receiving, by the chairman conference terminal, the token depriving request message forwarded by the MCU comprises:

receiving, by the MCU, the token depriving request message from the second conference terminal, the message carrying the ID of the second conference terminal;

obtaining, by the MCU, the token from the first conference terminal; and

forwarding, by the MCU, the token depriving request message to the chairman conference terminal if the MCU fails to obtain the token.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein when two chairman conference terminals exist, the receiving, by the chairman conference terminal, the token depriving request message forwarded by the MCU comprises:

receiving, by an auxiliary-stream chairman conference terminal for auxiliary stream images, the token depriving request message carrying the ID of the second conference terminal forwarded by the MCU.

7. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

if the MCU successfully obtains the token from the first conference terminal, the MCU issues the token to the second conference terminal, and updates a status of the token to idle.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein the obtaining the token from the first conference terminal by the MCU comprises:

sending a token request message to the first conference terminal;

obtaining successfully the token if the first conference terminal agrees to release the token.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the depriving the token from the first conference terminal by the MCU comprises:

sending, by the MCU, the token depriving request message to the first conference terminal that owns the token;

or

sending, by the MCU, the token request message to the first conference terminal that owns the token, and setting a symmetryBreaking field in the message to 0, that indicating that the first conference terminal must release the token.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1, further comprising:

sending, by the MCU, a token response message to the second conference terminal and updating the status of the token to idle.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

when multiple conference terminals request the token at the same time, the MCU issues the token to a conference terminal with a highest priority, wherein the priorities of the conference terminals are set in advance.

12. A system for controlling a token for an auxiliary stream in a multi-point double-stream conference, including a multi-point control unit, MCU, a first conference terminal, and a second conference terminal,

wherein the MCU is adapted to receive a token depriving request message in the multi-point double-stream conference when the token is occupied by the first conference terminal and the auxiliary stream is sent, and the second conference terminal requests the depriving of the token;

judge whether to execute the token depriving according to an ID carried in the token depriving request message; and

deprive the token from the first conference terminal when deciding to execute the token depriving.

13. The system according to claim 12, further comprising:

a chairman conference terminal, adapted to receive a token depriving request message, judge whether to execute the token depriving according to the ID carried in the token request and an internal policy, and send an token depriving request message carrying an ID of the chairman conference terminal to the MCU when deciding to deprive the token.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the MCU is further adapted to receive the token depriving request message, obtain the token from the first conference terminal according to the token depriving request message, and forward the token request message to the chairman conference terminal when failing to obtain the token.

15. The system according to claim 13, wherein the MCU is further adapted to send a token depriving response message to the second conference terminal that requests the token after successfully depriving the token, and update a status of the token to idle.

16. The system according to claim 13, wherein, when two chairman conference terminals exist, the chairman conference terminal is the chairman conference terminal for controlling auxiliary stream images.

17. A multi-point control unit, MCU, comprising:

a token request message receiving module, adapted to receive a token depriving request messages from conference terminals in a multi-point double-stream conference;

a token depriving judging module, adapted to judge whether to deprive a token from a first conference terminal according to an identifier, ID, carried in the token depriving request message; and

a token depriving request module, adapted to receive a judgment result from the token depriving judging module, release the token when deciding to deprive the token, and receive a token depriving request response message from the conference terminal that owns the token.

18. The MCU according to claim 17, further comprising:

a token response message sending module, adapted to send a token depriving response message to the second conference terminal that requests the token according to the token depriving request response message received by the token depriving request module.

19. The MCU according to claim 17, further comprising:

a token obtaining module, adapted to obtain the token from the conference terminal that owns the token according to the received token depriving request message and send a token obtaining result; and

a token request message forwarding module, adapted to receive the token obtaining result from the token obtaining module and forward the token depriving request message to a chairman conference terminal when the MCU fails to obtain the token.

20. A chairman conference terminal, comprising:

a token request message receiving and sending terminal, adapted to receive and send a token depriving request message;

a token depriving judging module, adapted to judge whether to deprive a token from the current conference terminal according to an identifier, ID, carried in the token depriving request message, and send a judgment result; and

a token depriving request message sending terminal, adapted to receive the judgment result from the token depriving judging module, and send a token depriving request message carrying an ID of the chairman conference terminal to a multi-point control unit, MCU, when deciding to deprive the token.

21. The chairman conference terminal according to claim 20, wherein the token request message is sent by the MCU or the conference terminal.