BANDWIDTH ALLOCATION FOR MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCING

• US 20130208663A1
• Filed: 02/09/2012
• Published: 08/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kanniappan, Senthil K., Fry, Steven G., Lian, Tiong-Hu
• Granted Patent: US 9,444,635 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• 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 65/4038 with floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities

Abstract

A method can include analyzing endpoint preference data from each of a plurality of endpoints of a multimedia conference. The endpoint preference data for each respective endpoint represents a desired distribution of bandwidth for different types of data in the multimedia conference for each respective endpoint. The method can also include allocating bandwidth between the different types of data for each of the plurality of endpoints in the multimedia conference based on the analysis of the endpoint preference data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

analyzing endpoint preference data from each of a plurality of endpoints of a multimedia conference, the endpoint preference data for each respective endpoint representing a desired distribution of bandwidth for different types of data in the multimedia conference for each respective endpoint; and

allocating bandwidth between the different types of data for each of the plurality of endpoints in the multimedia conference based on the analysis of the endpoint preference data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising weighting the endpoint preference data such that a greater weight is afforded to the endpoint preference data from an endpoint having a greater relative importance than another endpoint determined to have a lesser relative importance.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the weighting is based on a relative ranking of each of the plurality of endpoints.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the ranking is based on an identity of a user at each respective endpoint of the multimedia conference.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the identity of the user is determined prior to the multimedia conference.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

ranking each of the plurality of endpoints of the multimedia conference relative to each other; and

assigning a weighting to the endpoint preference data from each endpoint based on the ranking thereof;

applying the assigned weighting to the endpoint preference data, such that the allocation of bandwidth between the different types of data for the multimedia conference accounts for the ranking.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at a control unit the endpoint preference data from each of the plurality of endpoints of the multimedia conference in response to a user input at each respective endpoint; and

storing the endpoint preference data in memory of the control unit.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocation of bandwidth comprises a percentage of a total available bandwidth that is applied to a total available bandwidth capacity of each respective endpoint of the plurality of endpoints in the multimedia conference.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein at least two endpoints of the multimedia conference have different total bandwidth capacities, the allocation of bandwidth being applied proportionately to the total bandwidth capacity of each of the at least two endpoints for the different types of data.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the allocation of bandwidth for each of the endpoints is the substantially same.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising dynamically adjusting the allocation of bandwidth during the multimedia conference in response to a change in the endpoint preference data for at least one of the plurality of endpoints.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocating further comprises allocating a distribution of bandwidth for each of the plurality of endpoints based on capabilities of each of the plurality of endpoints negotiated during call signaling and based on the analysis of the endpoint preference data.

13. An apparatus comprising:

an analyzer configured to determine a distribution of bandwidth for different types of media employed in a multimedia conference based on an evaluation of user-programmable preference data stored in memory; and

a bandwidth allocation engine configured to allocate bandwidth for at least one of the endpoints between the different types of media in the multimedia conference, based on the distribution of bandwidth and endpoint capabilities.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a weighting function to apply weight to the user-programmable preference data depending on a relative ranking of each of the plurality of endpoints.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the relative ranking of each of the plurality of endpoints is based on an identity of a user associated with each respective endpoint of the multimedia conference.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the identity of the user is determined prior to the multimedia conference.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the analyzer and the bandwidth allocation engine comprise a control unit in a multi-point multimedia conferencing system, the user-programmable preference data being stored in the memory in response to a user input at each respective endpoint.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the distribution of bandwidth for the different types of media comprises a percentage of a total available bandwidth that is applied proportionately to a total available bandwidth capacity for each respective endpoint of the plurality of endpoints in the multimedia conference.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the bandwidth allocation engine is further configured to dynamically adjust the bandwidth allocation during the multimedia conference in response to a change of the user-programmable preference data for at least one of the plurality of endpoints.

20. A method comprising:

receiving, at a given endpoint of a multimedia conference, a user preference for distribution of bandwidth for different types of media being communicated with the given endpoint of the multimedia conference;

sending, from the given endpoint to a control unit, data representing the user preference; and

communicating, from the given endpoint, the different types of media in the multimedia conference with a bandwidth distribution for each of the different types of media determined according to bandwidth allocation instructions from the control unit, the bandwidth allocation instructions being based on an evaluation of user preferences for endpoints in the multimedia conference.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the distribution of bandwidth for the different types of media is set based on applying a weighting to the user preferences for endpoints in the multimedia conference based on a relative ranking for the respective endpoints.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving, at the given endpoint during the multimedia conference, updated bandwidth allocation instructions; and

adjusting the distribution of bandwidth for each of the different types of media communicated from the given endpoint based on the updated bandwidth allocation instructions.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the user preference for distribution of bandwidth for the different types of media is set in response to a user input at the given endpoint.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the user input at the given endpoint is provided during the multimedia conference.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the control unit is remotely located from the given endpoint, and the evaluation of user preferences is performed at the control unit.

26. An apparatus comprising:

a transmitter configured to send, from a given endpoint of a multimedia conference to a control unit, data representing a user preference for distribution of bandwidth for different types of media being communicated with the given endpoint of the multimedia conference; and

endpoint controls communicating the different types of media in the multimedia conference with a bandwidth distribution for each of the different types of media determined according to bandwidth allocation instructions from the control unit, the bandwidth allocation instructions being based on an evaluation of user preferences for multiple endpoints in the multimedia conference.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the distribution of bandwidth for the different types of media is set based on applying a weighting to the user preferences for endpoints in the multimedia conference based on a relative ranking for the respective endpoints.

28. The apparatus of claim 26, further comprising:

a receiver configured to receive updated bandwidth allocation instructions at the given endpoint during the multimedia conference, the endpoint distribution of bandwidth for each of the different types of media communicated from the given endpoint being dynamically adjusted during the multimedia conference based on the updated bandwidth allocation instructions.

29. The apparatus of claim 26, further comprising a user interface configured to set the user preference for distribution of bandwidth for the different types of media in response to a user input at the given endpoint.