Distributed network system architecture for collaborative computing
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- launching a plurality of logical collaboration servers on one or more physical servers, wherein each collaboration server is operable to host at least a portion of an on-line conference among a plurality of client computers;
storing state information for each of the plurality of collaboration servers at a gatekeeper that is separate from the collaboration servers, the state information for each collaboration server including current meeting data for the at least a portion of an on-line conference hosted at the collaboration server;
detecting a failure of a collaboration server;
in response to detecting the failure, launching a new collaboration server; and
recovering the state information for the failed collaboration server from the gatekeeper to the new collaboration server.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A distributed collaborative computer system is provided that comprises a plurality of server computers interconnected via a high-speed link. Client computers can connect to any available server computer and start or join a conference hosted on either the server computer to which the client computer is connected or any other server in the system. As a result, the system and method of the present invention is easily scalable to support an arbitrary number of participants to a conference by merely adding the appropriate number of server computers to the system. In addition, by replicating the conference information on more than one server computer, the single point of failure limitation is eliminated. In fact, if a server hosting or participating in a conference malfunctions, the failure is detected by other server computers and the client computer is able to reconnect to the conference through a new server computer.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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launching a plurality of logical collaboration servers on one or more physical servers, wherein each collaboration server is operable to host at least a portion of an on-line conference among a plurality of client computers; storing state information for each of the plurality of collaboration servers at a gatekeeper that is separate from the collaboration servers, the state information for each collaboration server including current meeting data for the at least a portion of an on-line conference hosted at the collaboration server; detecting a failure of a collaboration server; in response to detecting the failure, launching a new collaboration server; and recovering the state information for the failed collaboration server from the gatekeeper to the new collaboration server. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An apparatus comprising:
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one or more server computers; and computer instructions stored in a computer-readable medium, the computer instructions when executed by the one or more server computers operable to, launch a plurality of logical collaboration servers on the one or more server computers, wherein each collaboration server is operable to host at least a portion of an on-line conference among a plurality of client computers, store state information for each of the plurality of collaboration servers at a gatekeeper that is separate from the collaboration servers, the state information for each collaboration server including current meeting data for the at least a portion of an on-line conference hosted at the collaboration server, detect a failure of a collaboration server, launch a new collaboration server in response to detection of the failure, and recover the state information for the failed collaboration server from the gatekeeper to the new collaboration server. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
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14. A system comprising:
one or more physical servers accessible to a plurality of client computers via a wide area network to provide the plurality of client computers collaborative computing, the one or more physical servers including, a means for launching a plurality of collaborative servers, wherein each collaborative server is operable to host at least a portion of an on-line conference among the plurality of client computers, a means that is separate from the collaborative servers for storing state information for each of the plurality of collaborative servers, the state information for each collaborative server including current meeting data for the at least a portion of an on-line conference hosted at the collaborative server, a means to support at least one service for the on-line conference; and a means for detecting failures of the collaborative servers and upon detecting failure of one of the collaborative servers, to send a request to the means for launching a plurality of collaborative servers to launch a new collaborative server, wherein the new collaborative server is configured to recover the state information for the failed collaborative server from the means for storing state information. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
Specification