Emulation of room lock and lobby feature in distributed conferencing system

• US 8,880,598 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2007
• Issued: 11/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sekaran, Dhigha D., Wolfe, Kenneth, Wyatt, Doug
• Primary Examiner(s): Zele, Krista
• Assistant Examiner(s): FORMAN, JAMES Q
• Application Number:
  US11/784,922
• Publication Number:
  US 20080256182A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,765 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• 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

Abstract

Architecture for a session lock and lobby feature in a distributed conferencing framework for a conferencing session. Under a lock scenario, once a user enters the session, the session can be locked to prevent other individuals from entering, even if the individuals were invited to the session. Locking can be accomplished manually by a session participant and/or automatically based on criteria. The lobby feature allows a session participant to be aware of users in the lobby and pending access to the session by providing notification and/or identification of the user attempting to gain access. The session leader can selectively allow access to the session. The architecture facilitates lock and lobby features in multiple identical, leaderless, conference servers which together form a distributed conferencing system. The lock and lobby features can employ media session protocols such as session initiation protocol (SIP) and centralized conference control protocol (C3P).

Claims

1. A computer-implemented conferencing management system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor, provide one or more components, the one or more components further comprising;

a conferencing component for establishing a conferencing session of session participants, the session participants connected to the conferencing session via distributed media access components and based on a session protocol, wherein the conferencing component is further configured to receive a first join request from a first would-be session participant, the first join request including criteria that the first would-be session participant should be automatically admitted to the conferencing session, wherein upon receipt of the criteria in the first join request the first would-be session participant is admitted to the conference as a non-moderator session participant, and wherein the conferencing component is further configured to receive a second join request from a second would-be session participant, the second join request not including the criteria that the second would-be session participant should be automatically admitted to the conferencing session, wherein upon receipt of the second join request not including the criteria the second would-be session participant is admitted to a session lobby, and wherein the conferencing component is further configured to notify the non-moderator session participant of the second join request received by the conferencing component; and

a session management component for managing access to the conferencing session of the second would-be session participant relative to the session lobby, wherein the session management component is further configured to receive a notification from the session participant to promote the second would-be session participant from the session lobby to the conferencing session, wherein the session management component is further configured to receive a notification from the non-moderator session participant to enable a session lock to prevent further access and requests for access to the conferencing session.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the session protocol is session initiation protocol (SIP).

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the session protocol is centralized conference control protocol (C3P).

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the session management component facilitates notification of the non-moderator session participant of the second would-be session participant when the second would-be session participant is associated with the session lobby.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the conferencing component is further configured to receive an indication from the non-moderator session participant denying access to the conferencing session for the second would-be session participant.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the conferencing component is further configured to receive an indication from the non-moderator session participant allowing access to the conferencing session for the second would-be session participant.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the second would-be session participant is authenticated by the conferencing component prior to association with the session lobby.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the conferencing component signals one of the distributed media access components associated with the second would-be session participant to deny access to the conferencing session by the second would-be session participant, based on an unsuccessful authentication.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the conferencing component signals one of the distributed media access components associated with the second would-be session participant to allow access to the conferencing session to the second would-be session participant, based on a successful authentication.

10. A computer-implemented method of managing a conferencing session, comprising:

establishing a conferencing session of session participants via distributed media access components;

receiving a first request for session access from a first new user via one of the distributed media access components;

determining that the first request includes criteria that the first new user should be automatically admitted to the conferencing session;

admitting the first new user to the conferencing session as a non-moderator session participant;

receiving a second request for session access from a second new user via another of the distributed media access components;

determining that the second request does not include criteria that the second new user should be automatically admitted to the conferencing session;

notifying the non-moderator session participant that the second request for session access was received from the second new user;

receiving a notification from the non-moderator session participant to promote the second new user to the conferencing session;

admitting the second new user to the conferencing session;

enabling a session lock to prevent further access and requests for access to the conferencing session by the second new user; and

controlling access to the conferencing session by the second new user based on the session lock.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising controlling access to the conferencing session by the first new user and the second new user via at least one of SIP or C3P.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising authenticating the first new user and the second new user via the one of the distributed media access components using enterprise credentials.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising authenticating the first new user and the second new user via the one of the distributed media access components using digest data.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising sending a lesser amount of session information to the second new user based on initiation of an authentication process.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising sending a greater amount of session information to the second new user based on successful authentication of the second new user.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising notifying the session participants during the conferencing session of the request of the second new user.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising allowing a full media stream from the one of the distributed media access components based on session access by the second new user, the access granted by the non-moderator session participants.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising notifying a subset of the session participants that the second new user is attempting to gain access to the conferencing session, and granting access to the session based on the subset.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising managing existence of a lobby feature for the conferencing session.