Method and apparatus for the efficient transmission of multimedia streams for teleconferencing
First Claim
1. A method for controlling the operation of a teleconference across a telecommunications network comprising a plurality of nodes including one or more source locations and one or more remote locations, the teleconference including teleconference participants at each of said one or more source locations and at each of said one or more remote locations, the method performed by a teleconference controller, the method comprising:
- receiving, at the teleconference controller, a request from a first one of said remote locations to deliver a media signal from a first one of said source locations to said first one of said remote locations;
automatically selecting, at the teleconference controller, a second one of said remote locations to serve as a peer-to-peer forwarding node for said delivery of said media signal from said first one of said source locations to said first one of said remote locations; and
initiating, by the teleconference controller, a transmission of said media signal from said first one of said source locations to said selected second one of said remote locations, said media signal for use by teleconference participants located at said second one of said remote locations and for further use by said selected second one of said remote locations in forwarding said media signal to said first one of said remote locations.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A teleconferencing system in which a teleconference controller advantageously uses information relating to the network topology layout of remote nodes which are to participate in a teleconference, and then advantageously directs the transmission of video and/or audio streams from a source node to an identified subset of the remote nodes based on the capabilities of the nodes and the network links. These nodes which initially receive the video and/or audio streams then advantageously forward the streams in turn to other nodes in their vicinity using peer-to-peer network connectivity techniques. The identification of the subset of nodes which serve as peer-to-peer forwarding nodes may be based on node activity, node service capacity, the impact on network links between the node and the requester, the distance and/or latency between the node and the requester, and the ability of the node to meet requests including video transcoding requests.
28 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method for controlling the operation of a teleconference across a telecommunications network comprising a plurality of nodes including one or more source locations and one or more remote locations, the teleconference including teleconference participants at each of said one or more source locations and at each of said one or more remote locations, the method performed by a teleconference controller, the method comprising:
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receiving, at the teleconference controller, a request from a first one of said remote locations to deliver a media signal from a first one of said source locations to said first one of said remote locations; automatically selecting, at the teleconference controller, a second one of said remote locations to serve as a peer-to-peer forwarding node for said delivery of said media signal from said first one of said source locations to said first one of said remote locations; and initiating, by the teleconference controller, a transmission of said media signal from said first one of said source locations to said selected second one of said remote locations, said media signal for use by teleconference participants located at said second one of said remote locations and for further use by said selected second one of said remote locations in forwarding said media signal to said first one of said remote locations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A teleconference controller for controlling the operation of a teleconference across a telecommunications network comprising a plurality of nodes including one or more source locations and one or more remote locations, the teleconference including teleconference participants at each of said one or more source locations and at each of said one or more remote locations, the teleconference controller comprising:
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a receiver, which receives a request from a first one of said remote locations to deliver a media signal from a first one of said source locations to said first one of said remote locations; and an automatic selection module, which automatically selects a second one of said remote locations to serve as a peer-to-peer forwarding node for said delivery of said media signal from said first one of said source locations to said first one of said remote locations, and which initiates a transmission of said media signal from said first one of said source locations to said selected second one of said remote locations, said media signal for use by teleconference participants located at said second one of said remote locations and for further use by said selected second one of said remote locations in forwarding said media signal to said first one of said remote locations. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification