Dynamic distribution of participants in a centralized telephone conference

• US 7,274,675 B2
• Filed: 07/12/2002
• Issued: 09/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Corneliussen, Knut Snorre Bach, Iveland, Espen, Skjæran, Espen
• Primary Examiner(s): Rao; Seema S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Elallam; Ahmed
• Application Number:
  US10/194,960
• Publication Number:
  US 20030026214A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,901 Days
• Field of Search: 370/260, 379/202.01, 379/203.01, 379/158, 455/416, 348/211.12
• US Class Current: 370/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/185 wireless packet-switched
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/562 where the conference facilities are distributed
• 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 for distributing participants of a conference handled by a first conference unit in a packet switched network is disclosed. This is provided by, when a first condition is reached, locating a second conference unit satisfying a second condition, reserving conference call capacity in said second conference unit, transferring one or more of said participants from the first to the second conference unit and preferably entering said first conference unit as a participant in said second conference unit, wherein data streams of possible conference participants still attached to the first conference unit are mixed in the first conference unit and communicated as one data stream to the second conference unit.

The invention is particularly useful when applied to the SIP protocol in a 3GPP network.

Claims

1. A method of distributing one or more participants of a conference handled by a first conference unit in a packet switched network, the method comprising:

when a first condition is reached,

a. locating a second conference unit satisfying a second condition, wherein locating the second conference unit is executed by sending an INVITE message with a Universal Resource Identifier (URI) indicating a new ad-hoc conference to a domain of current interest;

b. reserving conference call capacity in said second conference unit, wherein when the second conference unit is located, the first conference unit starts transferring the one or more participants by;

putting the one or more participants on hold,

reguesting the second conference unit to invite the one or more participants to the second conference unit, and

releasing the one or more participants from the first conference unit;

c. transferring one or more of said participants from the first to the second conference unit, and

d. entering said first conference unit as a participant in said second conference unit, wherein the conference units and the participants communicate according to a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and data streams of possible conference participants still attached to the first conference unit are mixed in the first conference unit and communicated as one data stream to the second conference unit.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first condition is reached when the number or ratio of the participants localized in a second domain different from a first domain, in which said first conference unit is localized, exceeds a first pre-defined threshold.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the second conference unit satisfies the second condition if it is localized in the second domain and has sufficient unoccupied capacity for receiving the one or more of said participants from the first conference unit.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first condition is reached when the number of participants exceeds a second predefined threshold.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the second conference unit satisfies the second condition if it is localized in the same domain as the first conference unit and has sufficient unoccupied capacity for receiving one or more of said participants from the first conference unit.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the packet switched network is a 3GPP network, and the conference units are Media Resource Function (MRF) units.