Associating real-time conversations with a logical conversation

• US 7,769,809 B2
• Filed: 08/02/2005
• Issued: 08/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Raghav, Amritansh, Levin, Danny, Shtiegman, Eran, Samdadiya, Parag, Bobde, Nikhil
• Primary Examiner(s): Dollinger; Tonia L M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shin; Kyung H
• Application Number:
  US11/195,342
• Publication Number:
  US 20070033249A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,827 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/224, 709/238, 370/352
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4053 without floor control

Abstract

Techniques for associating one or more real-time sessions, which are each signaled separately, into one logical conversation without a centralized control, are provided. Some techniques share a conversation identifier that uniquely identifies a logical conversation across the real-time sessions that belong to the logical conversation. The conversation identifier is generated before the first real-time session belonging to the logical conversation is signaled, and distributed to the other participants in the logical conversation via the signaling channel. A called participant can use the conversation identifier for associating the previous real-time sessions belonging to the logical conversation, and for making new invitations for other real-time sessions that are associated with the same logical conversation.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing multimodal conversation without a centralized control, the method comprising:

receiving, at a client, a first request to establish a first real-time session between a first user and a second user, wherein the first user is different from the second user and wherein the first request includes a globally unique conversation identifier uniquely identifying a logical conversation;

creating the first real-time session between the first user and the second user;

receiving, at the client, a second request to establish a second real-time session between the first user and a third user, wherein the third user is different from the first user and the second user and wherein the second request includes the conversation identifier;

creating the second real-time session between the first user and the third user, wherein the second real-time session is displayed separately from the first real-time session and wherein the second real-time session does not include the second user;

determining whether the conversation identifier identifies an existing logical conversation on the client;

responsive to determining that the conversation identifier identifies an existing logical conversation on the client,

associating the first and second real-time sessions with the existing logical conversation identified by the conversation identifier, the existing logical conversation having an associated third real-time session corresponding to a communication session between the first user and a fourth user, the fourth user being different from the first, second, and third users and wherein the fourth real-time session is displayed separately from the first, second, and third real-time sessions and wherein the fourth real-time session does not include the second user and does not include the third user;

responsive to determining that the conversation identifier does not identify an existing logical conversation on the client,

creating a new logical conversation on the client,

associating the newly created logical conversation with the conversation identifier, and

associating the first and second real-time sessions with the newly created logical conversation

wherein the first real-time session is in a first mode and wherein the second real-time session is in a second mode different from the first mode so that the newly created logical conversation is associated with multiple modes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to establish the real-time session is sent by a remote client.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to establish the real-time session is signaled via a SIP message.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the conversation identifier is included as part of the SIP message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to establish the real-time session is for a first mode, and further wherein associating the newly created real-time session with the existing logical conversation associates the first mode with the logical conversation.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the existing logical conversation comprises at least one real-time session in the second mode.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to establish the real-time session is a request to establish an instant messaging session.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to establish the real-time session is a request to establish an application sharing session.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to establish the real-time session is a request to establish an audio/video session.

10. A method, performed by a computer having a memory and a processor, the method comprising:

determining at the first client that it is an initiator of a logical conversation; and

after determining at the first client that the first client is the initiator of the logical conversation,

generating a globally unique identifier that identifies the logical conversation,

sending to a second client the unique identifier identifying the logical conversation in a first SIP INVITE request to establish a first real-time session in the logical conversation,

with a processor, establishing the first real-time session, wherein the first client and the second client interact across the first real-time session without centralized control,

with a processor, associating, at the first client, the first real-time session with the logical conversation,

sending to a third client the unique identifier identifying the logical conversation in a second SIP INVITE request to establish a second real-time session in the logical conversation,

with a processor, establishing the second real-time session, wherein the

first client and the third client interact across the second real-time session

without centralized control and wherein the second real-time session is signaled separately from the first real-time session so that the first client can maintain separate real-time sessions with each of the second and third clients, and

with a processor, associating, at the first client, the second real-time session with the logical conversation

wherein the first real-time session is in a first mode and wherein the second real-time session is in a second mode different from the first mode so that the logical conversation is associated with multiple modes.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the request to establish the first real-time session is a request to establish a real-time session with a remote client.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the unique identifier is included in the header of the first and the second SIP INVITE requests.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the request to establish the first real-time session is a request to establish a teleconferencing session.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the request to establish the first real-time session is a request to establish a videoconferencing session.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

after determining at the first client that the first client is not the initiator of the logical conversation,

determining an existing logical conversation and an existing conversation identifier that uniquely identifies the existing logical conversation, the existing logical conversation associated with at least one existing real-time session;

sending the existing conversation identifier in a request to establish a subsequent real-time session in the existing logical conversation; and

after establishing the subsequent real-time session, associating the established subsequent real-time session with the existing logical conversation.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one existing real-time session and the subsequent real-time session are with different clients.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one existing real-time session and the subsequent real-time session are with the same client.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving from a fourth client the unique identifier identifying the logical conversation in a third SIP INVITE request to establish a third real-time session in the logical conversation.

19. A system having a memory and a processor for providing multimodal conversation, the system comprising:

a component at a first client configured to receive from a first user a first request to establish a first real-time session with a second user, the first request including a first globally unique conversation identifier uniquely identifying a first logical conversation;

a component at the first client configured to receive from the first user a second request to establish a second real-time session with a third user, the second request including the first conversation identifier; and

a component at the first client configured to create a first logical conversation on the first client and associate the first real-time session and the second real-time session with the first logical conversation, the first logical conversation being identified by the first conversation identifier

wherein the first real-time session and the second real-time session are signaled separately so that the first user can maintain separate real-time sessions with each of the second and third users wherein messages sent from the first client to the second user as part of the first real-time session are not received by the third user and wherein messages sent from the first client to the third user as part of the second real-time session are not received by the second user

wherein the first real-time session is in a first mode and wherein the second real-time session is in a second mode different from the first mode so that the first logical conversation is associated with at least two modes and

wherein the components comprise computer-executable instructions stored in memory for execution by the processor.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

a component at the first client configured to query a second client for a list of participants with whom a user at the second client is actively conducting a real-time session associated with the first logical conversation.

21. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

a component at the first client configured to receive from the first user a third request to establish a third real-time session with a fourth user, the third request including a second conversation identifier uniquely identifying a second logical conversation, wherein the first conversation identifier is different from the second conversation identifier;

a component at the first client configured to receive from the first user a fourth request to establish a fourth real-time session with a fifth user, the fourth request including the second conversation identifier; and

a component at the first client configured to create a second logical conversation on the first client and associate the third real-time session and the fourth real-time session with the second logical conversation, the second logical conversation being identified by the second conversation identifier, so that the third real-time session and the fourth real-time session are each associated with the second logical conversation and not associated with the first logical real-time session

wherein the first real-time session, the second real-time session, the third real-time session, and the fourth real-time session are signaled separately so that the first user can maintain separate communication sessions with each of the second, third, fourth, and fifth users, wherein messages sent from the first client to the fourth user as part of the third real-time session are not received by the fifth user and wherein messages sent from the first client to the fifth user as part of the fourth real-time session are not received by the fourth user, and wherein each of the first, second, third, and fourth real-time sessions are grouped according to their associated logical conversations.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

a component configured to create and display a first window for the first logical conversation;

a component configured to create and display a second window for the second logical conversation, wherein the second window is different from the first window;

a component configured to create and display a first sub-window for the first real-time session, wherein the first sub-window is displayed within the first window;

a component configured to create and display a second sub-window for the second real-time session, wherein the second sub-window is displayed within the first window;

a component configured to create and display a third sub-window for the third real-time session, wherein the third sub-window is displayed within the second window; and

a component configured to create and display a fourth sub-window for the fourth real-time session, wherein the fourth sub-window is displayed within the second window.

23. A method performed by a computing device having a memory and a processor, the method comprising:

determining at the first client that it is an initiator of a logical conversation;

generating a globally unique identifier that identifies the logical conversation,

sending to a second client the unique identifier identifying the logical conversation in a first SIP INVITE request to establish a first real-time session in the logical conversation;

with a processor, establishing the first real-time session, wherein the first client and the second client interact across the first real-time session without centralized control;

with a processor, associating, at the first client, the first real-time session with the logical conversation by storing an indication of the first real-time session in a table associated with the unique identifier;

receiving from a third client the unique identifier identifying the logical conversation in a second SIP INVITE request to establish a second real-time session in the logical conversation;

with a processor, establishing the second real-time session, wherein the first client and the third client interact across the second real-time session without centralized control and wherein the second real-time session is signaled separately from the first real-time session; and

with a processor, associating, at the first client, the second real-time session with the logical conversation by storing an indication of the second real-time session in the table associated with the unique identifier

wherein the first real-time session and the second real-time session are signaled separately so that the first client can maintain separate real-time sessions with the second client and the third client and wherein both the first real-time session and the second real-time session are associated with the same unique identifier that is sent

by the first client to the second client and received by the first client from the third client and wherein the first real-time session is in a first mode and wherein the second real-time session is in a second mode different from the first mode.