METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISPATCHING RECEIVED SESSIONS BETWEEN A PLURATLITY OF INSTANCES OF AN APPLICATION USING THE SAME IP PORT

• US 20160308921A1
• Filed: 06/27/2016
• Published: 10/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Polycom Incorporated (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Tsym, Kirill
• Granted Patent: US 9,992,247 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1106 Call signalling protocols; H.323 and related
• 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: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1014 based on the content of a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1031 Controlling of the operation of servers by a load balancer, e.g. adding or removing servers that serve requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70

Abstract

A logical module, referred as Load Balancer Module (LBM), is disclosed which listens to one of certain common predefined port number. These well-known ports for receiving communication video conference signaling and control protocols is thereafter load balanced and multi-plexed to a number of instances of protocol stack applications. By balancing the multi-media data stream across a multitude of application instances multiple multi-media data streams may be serviced and processed by a single internet protocol host processor. A mutipoint control unit (MCU) may therefore process multiple input data streams containing multi-media video conferencing information.

Claims

1. A method of load balancing a plurality of instances of processes supporting one or more conferences over a network comprising:

instantiating a load balancing module on a processing unit;

instantiating one or more instances of a protocol stack on the processing unit in response to a request from the load balancing module;

receiving at the processing unit data packets over a network from a plurality of endpoints;

selecting an instance from the one or more instances of the protocol stack to process each received data packet, the selected instance corresponding to an endpoint from the plurality of endpoints;

associating, by the load balancing module, the endpoint with the selected instance during a conference;

transferring the received data packets toward the associated instance independently of the load balancing module;

receiving data packets unassociated with an instance of the protocol stack;

instantiating, at the request of the load balancing module, a new instance of the protocol stack, the new instance associated with an endpoint; and

passing the unassociated data packets to the new instance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network comprises an interne protocol network.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the load balancing module operates in accordance with H.320, H.323 or H.324 standards.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein data packets from an endpoint are handled directly by the selected instance of the protocol stack associated to the endpoint for the duration of the conference.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the load balancing module services Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a transport protocol used to service the SIP data is User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the SIP data is encrypted.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the processing unit comprises a multipoint control unit.

9. An Internet Protocol (IP) host, the host comprising:

a processing unit;

a computer readable medium; and

an operating system stored in the computer readable medium for controlling the processing unit;

wherein the processing unit is configured to;

instantiate a load balancing module on a processing unit;

instantiate one or more instances of a protocol stack on the processing unit;

receive data packets over a network from a plurality of endpoints;

select an instance from the one or more instances of the protocol stack to process each received data packet from an endpoint from the plurality of endpoints;

associate the endpoint with the selected instance for the duration of a conference;

transfer the received data packets toward the associated instance;

receive data packets unassociated with an instance of the protocol stack;

instantiate a new instance of the protocol stack, the new instance of the protocol stack associated with another endpoint; and

pass the unassociated data packets to the new instance.

10. The host of claim 9, wherein the network comprises an internet protocol network.

11. The host of claim 10, wherein the load balancing module operates in accordance with H.320, H.323 or H.324 standards.

12. The host of claim 11, wherein data packets from an endpoint are handled directly by the selected instance of the protocol stack associated to the endpoint for the duration of the conference.

13. The host of claim 9, wherein the load balancing module services Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) data.

14. The host of claim 13, wherein a transport protocol used to service the SIP data is User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

15. The host of claim 13, wherein the SIP data is encrypted.

16. The host of claim 9, wherein the processing unit comprises a multipoint control unit.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium with programmable processor instructions stored thereon to cause a processing unit to:

instantiate a load balancing module on a processing unit;

instantiate one or more instances of a protocol stack on the processing unit;

receive data packets over a network from a plurality of endpoints;

select an instance from the one or more instances of the protocol stack to process each received data packet from an endpoint from the plurality of endpoints;

associate the endpoint with the selected instance for the duration of a conference;

transfer the received data packets toward the associated instance;

receive data packets unassociated with an instance of the protocol stack;

instantiate a new instance of the protocol stack; and

pass the unassociated data packets to the new instance.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the network comprises an interne protocol network.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions stored thereon cause the load balancing module to service conference H.323, H.323 or H.324 protocol messages.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions stored thereon cause the load balancing module to service Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) messages.

21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the instructions stored thereon further cause the processing unit to use User Datagram Protocol (UDP) as a transport protocol to carry SIP data associated with the serviced SIP messages.

22. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the serviced SIP messages are encrypted.