FACILITATING MULTI-PARTY CONFERENCES, INCLUDING ALLOCATING RESOURCES NEEDED FOR CONFERENCE WHILE ESTABLISHING CONNECTIONS WITH PARTICIPANTS

• US 20140022334A1
• Filed: 07/18/2013
• Published: 01/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Polycom Incorporated (Plantronics, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lockhart, Carin, Pandey, Kuldeep, Drozdzewicz, Piotr, Adams, Jeff
• Granted Patent: US 9,319,634 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/14.09
• 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 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1093 by adding participants; by removing participants
• 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: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/152 Multipoint control units therefor

Abstract

A system includes a network interface for sending and receiving one or more of video data and audio data between two or more endpoints. One or more of a video data source and an audio data source located at more than one endpoint and a control unit for controlling one or more of the video data and the audio data between endpoints. The control unit is operable to execute instructions to specify more than one participant in a conference, wherein at least one participant is remotely located and invoke the conference upon receiving one or more requests to connect to the conference by one or more participants. The control unit is further operable to allocate resources upon the conference being invoked and connect participants to the conference.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

specifying more than one participant in a conference;

invoking the conference upon connecting one or more participants to the conference; and

allocating resources to connect participants to the conference upon the conference being invoked.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to connect to the conference by one or more participants.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

delaying one or more requests to connect to the conference by one or more participants until the conference is invoked.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the conference is invoked upon receiving one or more requests to connect to the conference by one or more participants.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

invoking the conference upon receiving a request to connect to the conference from any participant.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

contacting participants to connect the participants to the conference upon the conference being invoked.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

authenticating participants to the conference upon receiving one or more requests by one or more participants to connect to the conference.

8. A system comprising:

a network interface for sending and receiving one or more of video data and audio data between two or more endpoints;

one or more of a video data source and an audio data source located at more than one endpoint; and

a control unit for controlling one or more of the video data and the audio data between endpoints, the control unit operable to execute instructions to;

specify more than one participant in a conference, wherein at least one participant is remotely located;

invoke the conference upon receiving one or more requests to connect to the conference by one or more participants;

allocate resources upon the conference being invoked; and

connect participants to the conference.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the control unit is further operable to:

receive a request to connect to the conference from one or more participants.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the control unit is further operable to:

delay the requests of one or more participants to connect to the conference until the conference is invoked.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the control unit is further operable to:

delay the requests of one or more participants to connect to the conference until the request to connect to the conference by a chairperson is received.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the control unit is further operable to:

allocate resources upon the conference being invoked to connect participants to the conference, the resources allocated depending upon at least a quantity of participants connected to the conference.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the control unit is further operable to:

authenticate participants to the conference upon receiving one or more requests to connect to the conference by one or more participants.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein participants are authenticated to the conference using one or more of passcode authentication and biometric authentication.

15. A method comprising:

specifying more than one participant in a conference, where at least one participant is remotely located;

designating at least one participant as chairperson;

receiving requests to connect to the conference from one or more participants;

delaying one or more requests to connect to the conference by one or more participants until the conference is invoked;

invoking the conference upon receiving a request to connect to the conference by the chairperson; and

allocating resources for connecting participants to the conference, the resources allocated depending upon participants connected.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

messaging dial-in participants to request the participants to connect to the conference.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

contacting dial-out participants to request the participants to connect to the conference.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

contacting dial-in participants with at least one failed request to connect to the conference to request the participants to connect to the conference.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

authenticating participants to the conference upon receiving one or more requests to connect to the conference by one or more participants, wherein participants are authenticated using one or more of passcode authentication and biometric authentication.

20. A system, comprising:

a storage device; and

a processor coupled to the storage device, the processor adapted to execute instructions stored in the storage device to;

specify more than one participant in a conference, where at least one participant is located remotely;

designate at least one participant as chairperson;

receive a request to connect to the conference by more than one participant;

determine if the chairperson has requested to connect to the conference;

if the chairperson has requested to connect to the conference then, invoke the conference, allocate resources for the conference, and connect participants to the conference; and

if the chairperson has not requested to connect to the conference then, delay the connection of participants to the conference; and

return to the act of determining if the chairperson has requested to connect to the conference.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the processor is further adapted to:

message requests to specified participants to connect to the conference via a network.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the network comprises at least one of a telecommunication network and a computer network.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein participants are messaged using one or more of unicast messaging, multicast messaging, and broadcast messaging.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the processor is further adapted to:

authenticate participants to the conference, wherein participants are authenticated using one or more of passcode authentication and biometric authentication.

25. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions to cause one or more processors to:

specify more than one participant in a conference where at least one participant is located remotely;

designate at least one participant as chairperson;

receive a request to connect to the conference by more than one participant;

determine if the chairperson has requested to connect to the conference;

delay connecting one or more participants to the conference until the request to connect to the conference from the chairperson is received;

invoke the conference upon receiving the request to connect to the conference from the chairperson;

message participants to request the participants to connect to the conference via a network, wherein dial-in participants with at least one failed request to connect to the conference and dial-out participants are messaged to request the participants to connect to the conference; and

allocate resources to connect participants to the conference upon the conference being invoked, the resources allocated depending upon participants to connect to the conference.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein participants are messaged using one or more of unicast messaging, multicast messaging, and broadcast messaging.