Conference server redundancy

• US 7,822,859 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2007
• Issued: 10/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pixion Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Pixion Incorporated
• Inventors: Wells, Benjamin, Madams, Peter, Flower, John, Kaul, Clint, Salesky, Joseph, Janne, Edward Arthur Ho-Ming
• Primary Examiner(s): Jean; Frantz B
• Application Number:
  US11/926,055
• Publication Number:
  US 20080133769A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,094 Days
• Field of Search: 709/227, 709/228
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1415 with means for detecting differences between the image stored in the host and the images displayed on the displays
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1836 with heterogeneous network architecture
• 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 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

An improved networked computer communications system handles arbitrary streams of data, and transports at varying speeds those streams where intermediate updates can be dropped if they are obsoleted by later arriving data updates, optimizing the utilization of network and node resources. Complex buffering by system server software allows distributed, parallel, or redundant processing, transmission, and storage for performance, reliability, and robustness. Various parameters of the system can be monitored, and the system can be reconfigured automatically based on the observations. Varied techniques reduce the perceived end-to-end latency and take advantage of software and hardware capabilities that assets connected to the system may possess. One conferencing system allows conference participants to share all or a portion of the display seen on their computer screens. The conferees may be at sites removed from each other, or may view a recorded presentation or archived conference at different times. Conference participants are either “presenters” who can modify the display or “attendees” who cannot modify the display. A pointer icon, which can be labeled to identify the conferee, is displayed on the shared image area. Each conferee can modify the position of his or her own pointer, even when not presenting, so that every participant can see what each conferee is pointing to, should a conferee choose to point to an element of the display. These and other features apply to other data streams shared in the conference or in meetings where there is no shared-image data stream.

Claims

1. A method for maintaining redundancy in a conferencing network, the method comprising:

establishing a connection between a conference server and one or more clients in the conferencing network;

detecting an isolation between the conference server and the one or more clients in the conferencing network;

attempting to re-establish a connection between the conference server and the one or more clients in the conferencing network; and

distributing a conferencing workload associated with the conference server to another conference server in the conferencing network when a connection cannot be re-established between the conference server and the one or more clients in the conferencing network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising announcing the state of a conference to the other conference server such that distribution of the conferencing workload occurs with decreased loss of data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising mirroring the conference server at the other conference server such that distribution of the conference workload occurs decreased loss of data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the other conference server is a dedicated conference server.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the other conference server is one of the one or more clients in the conferencing network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the conference server provides information about network congestion to the one or more clients in the conferencing network.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the conferencing server distributes the conference workload based on at least the network congestion in the conferencing network.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering conferencing data from the one or more clients in the conferencing network.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the conferencing server distributes the workload based on at least the filtered conferencing data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein distributing the conference workload includes changing a tree configuration for the conferencing network.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the conferencing network is a homogenous.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the conferencing network is heterogeneous.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein distributing the conference workload occurs over several routes at once.

14. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a computer to perform a method for maintaining redundancy in a conferencing network, the method comprising:

establishing a connection between a conference server and one or more clients in the conferencing network;

detecting an isolation between the conference server and the one or more clients in the conferencing network;

attempting to re-establish a connection between the conference server and the one or more clients in the conferencing network; and

distributing a conferencing workload associated with the conference server to another conference server in the conferencing network when a connection cannot be re-established between the conference server and the one or more clients in the conferencing network.

15. A redundant conferencing system, comprising:

a first conferencing server;

a plurality of clients configured to exchange conferencing data with the first conferencing server over a conferencing network; and

a second conferencing server configured to receive a conferencing workload from the first conferencing server when the first conferencing server becomes isolated from the plurality of clients in the conferencing network and a connection cannot be re-established between the first conferencing server and the plurality of clients.

16. The redundant conferencing system of claim 15, wherein the second conferencing server is a mirroring server.