Reducing multipoint conferencing bandwidth

• US 6,775,247 B1
• Filed: 03/22/1999
• Issued: 08/10/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Unify Inc. (Atos SE)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Information And Communication Networks, Inc. (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Shaffer, Shmuel, Beyda, William J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Phunkulh, Bob A.
• Application Number:
  US09/273,596
• Time in Patent Office: 1,968 Days
• Field of Search: 370/260, 370/261, 370/262, 370/263, 370/264, 370/265, 370/266, 370/267, 370/268, 348/14.08, 348/14.09, 348/14.02, 709/204, 709/205
• US Class Current: 370/260
• 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: 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

A method, apparatus and communication system for efficiently and economically supporting a multipoint videoconference call is described. The multimedia conference unit determines which communication unit is a dominant communication unit, with the other communication units being thus determined to be subordinate communication units. The multimedia conference unit then commands the subordinate communication units to suppress a video portion of their respective signals, such that the digital signal processing analysis by the multimedia conference unit required to support the multipoint conference is reduced and network bandwidth used is minimized.

Claims

1. A method of establishing a multipoint conference among a plurality of communication units, wherein each of the communication units is coupled to a multimedia conference unit that is capable of arranging connections between each of the plurality of communication units in support of the multipoint conference, wherein the communication units communicate with each other by passing signals over a network via said connections, and wherein said signals include signals in the form of video packets, said method comprising:

determining which of the plurality of communication units is a dominant communication unit, the others of the plurality of communication units being designated as subordinate communication units;

suppressing a portion of the signals passed over said network by the subordinate communication units; and

sending video packets directly from the dominant communication unit to at least some subordinate communication units in a multicast mode.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the determining is performed by the multimedia conference unit based on audio dominance.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein the signals include audio signals and video signals.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein the audio signals take the form of audio packets and the video signals take the form of video packets.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said network comprises a wireless telephony system.

6. A method of establishing a multipoint conference among a plurality of communication units, wherein each of the communication units is coupled to a multimedia conference unit that is capable of arranging connections between each of the plurality of communication units in support of the multipoint conference, wherein the communication units communicate with each other by passing signals over a network via said connections, said method comprising:

determining which of the plurality of communication units is a dominant communication unit, the others of the plurality of communication units being designated as subordinate communication units; and

suppressing a portion of the signals passed over said network by the subordinate communication units;

wherein the determining is performed by the multimedia conference unit based on audio dominance;

wherein the signals include audio signals and video signals;

wherein the audio signals take the form of audio packets and the video signals take the form of video packets; and

sending video packets directly from the dominant communication unit to selected ones of the subordinate communication units in a multicast mode;

wherein suppressing a portion of the signals comprises;

issuing a command by the multimedia conference unit to each of the subordinate communication units to stop sending video packets over said network such that only the dominant communication unit is sending video packets and each of the subordinate communication units is only receiving the dominant communication unit video packets.

7. A method of establishing a multipoint conference among a plurality of communication units, wherein each of the communication units is coupled to a multimedia conference unit that is capable of arranging connections between each of the plurality of communication units in support of the multipoint conference, wherein the communication units communicate with each other by passing signals over a network via said connections, said method comprising:

determining which of the plurality of communication units is a dominant communication unit, the others of the plurality of communication units being designated as subordinate communication units; and

suppressing a portion of the signals passed over said network by the subordinate communication units;

wherein the determining is performed by the multimedia conference unit based on audio dominance;

wherein the signals include audio signals and video signals;

wherein the audio signals take the form of audio packets and the video signals take the form of video packets; and

wherein suppressing a portion of the signals comprises issuing a command by the multimedia conference unit to each of the subordinate communication units to stop sending video packets over said network such that only the dominant communication unit is sending video packets and each of the subordinate communication units is only receiving the dominant communication unit video packets;

the method further comprising sending video packets directly from the dominant communication unit to selected ones of the subordinate communication units in a multicast mode, and sending video packets from a selected subordinate communication unit directly to the dominant communication unit.

8. A method as recited in claim 7 wherein the dominant communication unit is a first communication unit to contact the multimedia conference unit.

9. A method as recited in claim 8 further comprising:

determining if the dominant communication unit has changed from the first one of the communication units to a second one of the communication units;

commanding the first communication unit to stop sending video signals in the form of video packets; and

commanding the second communication unit to start sending video signals in the form of video packets.

10. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein said network comprises an H.323 network.

11. A system for conducting a multimedia conference, comprising:

a plurality of personal communication units, wherein each of the personal communication units provides a communication signal;

a multimedia conference unit interconnecting each of the plurality of personal communication units by way of a network, wherein the network carries communication signals provided by at least any one of the plurality of personal communication units;

a selector unit, coupled to the multimedia conference unit, that determines which of the personal communication units in the network represents a dominant communication unit such that the other personal communication units represent subordinate communication units; and

wherein the multimedia conference unit directs the subordinate communication units to suppress a portion of their respective communication signals and further directs the dominant communication unit to transmit its corresponding communication signal to each of the subordinate communication units.

12. A system as recited in claim 11, wherein the communication signal takes the form of an audio signal and a video signal, and said portion is said video signal.

18. A system as recited in claim 11, wherein said multimedia conference unit directs the dominant personal communication unit to transmit its corresponding communication signal to at least each of said subordinate communication units via connections to said multimedia conference unit.

19. A system as recited in claim 18, wherein said connections are unicast or multicast connections.

13. A system as recited in 12, wherein the audio signal is formed of a plurality of audio packets and wherein the video signal is formed of a plurality of video packets.

14. A system as recited in 13, wherein the personal communication unit is a first personal communication unit to contact the multimedia conference unit.

15. A system as recited in claim 14, wherein when the selector unit has determined a new dominant communication unit, the multimedia conference unit commands the new dominant communication unit to start sending video packets and commands said dominant communication unit to stop sending video packets.

16. A system as recited in claim 15, wherein the system is a telephony-over-local area network (ToL) system and said personal communication unit are computers.

17. A system as recited in claim 16, wherein the system is a wireless telephone system.

20. A computer program product comprising:

a computer-readable medium;

multimedia conference unit operating instructions embedded in the computer-readable medium, wherein the multimedia conference unit operating instructions determine which one of a plurality of communication units is a dominant communication unit, such that others of the plurality of communication units are subordinate communication units; and

wherein the multimedia conference unit operating instructions suppress a portion of communication signals provided by the subordinate communication units by instructing some subordinate communication units to refrain from providing some communications; and

wherein the multimedia conference unit operating instructions instruct the dominant communication unit to send video communication signals directly to some subordinate communication units.

21. A multimedia conference unit suitable for interconnecting a plurality of communication units arranged to transmit and receive digitized communication signals over a network including said multimedia conference unit, comprising:

a plurality of input/output ports coupled to said network; and

a selector unit coupled to the input/output ports arranged to determine which of the communication units is a dominant communication unit, wherein the the other communication units are deemed to be subordinate communication units, and wherein the selector unit causes the subordinate communication units to suppress their respective transmission of digitized communication signals and to receive from the dominant communication unit, multicast mode, the digitized communication signal transmitted by the dominant communication unit.