Multi-conferencing capability

• US 8,204,195 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Issued: 06/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Geppert, Birgit A., Roessler, Frank M.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, QUYNH H
• Application Number:
  US11/904,716
• Publication Number:
  US 20090086952A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,726 Days
• Field of Search: 379/202.01, 370/260, 370/261, 709/204, 709/227
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• 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: H04M 1/576 associated with a pictorial or graphical representation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5018 Initiating a conference during a two-party conversation, i.e. three-party-service or three-way-call computer conference organisation arrangements H04L12/1818
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/62 user interface aspects of conference calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/563 User guidance or feature selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/564 whereby the feature is a sub-conference

Abstract

A system and method for providing the capability to simultaneously manage multiple conference calls, move participants in the conference calls from one conference call to another and subdivide or join multiple conference calls together, and the like, wherein a participant seeking to initiate conference calls does so at his or her endpoint by selecting conference call identifiers, where the identifiers identify conference calls to be created. The initiating participant then selects the participants to be associated with the particular calls and confirms the selection. Upon confirmation of the selection, the conference calls among the selected participants are established.

Claims

1. A method for providing simultaneous management of multiple conference calls, comprising the steps of:

selecting, by an endpoint device, a conference call identifier on a user interface located at an endpoint of a system, the conference call identifier identifying a selected conference call;

selecting, by the endpoint device, on the user interface participants to be associated with the selected conference call;

confirming, by the endpoint device, on the user interface the selection of each participant to be associated with the selected conference call; and

establishing, by the endpoint device, the conference call among the confirmed participants, said establishing step comprising

notifying each participant of each of the multiple conference calls about a new topology;

waiting for receipt of requests to initiate conference calls during an idle state;

establishing a set of conference hosts upon receipt of a request to initiate the conference calls;

checking to determine whether host requests are sent to all conference hosts;

waiting for responses from a conference host if host requests are sent to all the conference hosts;

checking to determine whether all conference hosts have responded to the host requests;

establishing a set of all conference call participants;

checking to determine whether all participants in the set of conference call participants have been notified about the new topology; and

continuing to await, as necessary, additional receipt of the requests to initiate conference calls.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein requests are received at a distribution module of a controller module from a view module during the idle state.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein host responses are received at the distribution module via a transport service module or locally.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising returning to said step of waiting for responses from the conference hosts if all the responses were not received.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising returning to said waiting for receipt of requests if all participants within the set of all conference call participants have been notified about the new topology.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

selecting a next conference host from the set of conference hosts if the host requests were not sent to all of the conference hosts; and

sending the host request to the next conference host via a transport service module or locally.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

receiving and processing the host request sent to the next conference host during the idle state of the controller module;

checking to determine which participant to drop from the conference call;

checking to determine which participant to add to the conference call;

updating the conference call via a conference services module;

sending a host response to the distributor module of the controller module via the transport service module or locally; and

returning to the idle state.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

selecting a next participant from the set of conference call participants if all participants within the set of conference call participants have not been notified about the new topology; and

forwarding a notification of the next participant from the distribution module of the controller module for use in updating remote user interfaces of the conference call participants.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

receiving the notification from the transport service module during the idle state or locally;

updating a display shown to a conference call participant on the user device via the view module; and

returning to the idle state.

10. A method for providing simultaneous management of multiple conference calls, comprising the steps of:

selecting, by an endpoint device, a conference call identifier on a user interface located at an endpoint of a system;

selecting, by the endpoint device, on the user interface participants to be associated with a selected conference call;

confirming, by the endpoint device, on the user interface the selection of each participant to be associated with the selected conference call; and

establishing, by the endpoint device, the conference call among the confirmed participants, said establishing step comprising;

waiting for receipt of requests to initiate conference calls during an idle state;

establishing a set of conference hosts upon receipt of a request to initiate the conference calls;

checking to determine whether host requests are sent to all conference hosts;

waiting for responses from a conference host if host requests are sent to all the conference hosts;

checking to determine whether all conference hosts have responded to the host requests;

establishing a set of all conference call participants;

checking to determine whether all participants in the set of conference call participants have been notified about a new topology; and

continuing to await, as necessary, additional receipt of the requests to initiate conference calls.