Systems and methods for setting up a collaborative communication system

• US 9,077,738 B1
• Filed: 09/04/2013
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Open Invention Network LLC
• Inventors: Jones, Dan, Marcum, William, Puentes, Emmanuel, Vernon, Todd, Wanek, Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore, Jr., Michael J
• Application Number:
  US14/017,368
• Time in Patent Office: 671 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1886 with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• 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 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/147 Signalling methods or messages providing extensions to protocols defined by standardisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

A collaborative communication system comprises a highly flexible architecture that facilitates connecting communication devices and networks to establish multimedia collaboration sessions in a manner that allows distribution of various services and features throughout the collaborative communication system to provide scalability and selectable combination of cost, resource usage, and performance.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining a list of services to be loaded by a media switch;

loading the services;

if it is determined that other services are to be loaded, loading the other services by the media switch and ensuring a first service of the other services to load is an authentication service that is accepted from at least one trusted endpoint address;

wherein loading the other services comprises loading a presence service which maintains information on all endpoints associated with the media switch via an endpoint locator service that is running before any of the other services are loaded;

wherein the presence service maintains information comprising at least one of entity availability that indicates a service'"'"'s ability to accept connections or entity type that indicates one or more services offered by an endpoint; and

wherein the presence service is configured to publish its own presence with itself when loaded, and is further configured to attempt an additional attachment as a master presence service that is awarded to a presence service that first attempts to be the master presence service, wherein the master presence service is configured to provide synchronized access information to shared data elements.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein loading the authentication service comprises initiating the authentication service and the authentication service attempting to publish its presence with the presence service.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the authentication service receiving an indication that the attempt to publish its presence failed and the authentication service again attempting to publish its presence after the presence service is loaded.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising loading an additional authentication service.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising loading an additional presence service.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein loading the other services comprises loading non-core services.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reading a configuration file to determine the list of services to be loaded by the media switch; and

reading the configuration file to determine a list of the other services that should be loaded.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising loading the other services sequentially.

9. A system, comprising:

a media switch configured determine a list of services to be loaded by the media switch;

wherein the media switch loads the services;

wherein the media switch is configured to determine if other services are to be loaded and if so, the media switch loads the other services and ensures a first service of the other services to load is an authentication service that is accepted from at least one trusted endpoint address;

wherein the media switch loads the other services comprises a presence service being loaded which maintains information on all endpoints associated with the media switch via an endpoint locator service that is run before any of the other services are loaded;

wherein the presence service maintains information comprising at least one of entity availability that indicates a service'"'"'s ability to accept connections or entity type that indicates one or more services offered by an endpoint, and wherein the presence service is configured to publish its own presence with itself when loaded, and is further configured to attempt an additional attachment as a master presence service that is awarded to a presence service that first attempts to be the master presence service, wherein the master presence service is configured to provide synchronized access information to shared data elements.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the authentication service to load comprises the authentication service being initiated and the authentication service attempts to publish its presence with the presence service.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the authentication service is configured to receive an indication that the attempt to publish its presence failed and to attempt to publish its presence after the presence service is loaded.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the other services being loaded comprises loading an additional authentication service.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the other services being loaded comprises loading an additional presence service.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the other services being loaded comprises loading non-core services.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the media switch service is configured to allow the media switch to communicate as an addressable endpoint.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the media switch is configured to read a configuration file to determine the list of services to be loaded by the media switch and to determine a list of the other services that should be loaded.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the other services are loaded sequentially.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that when read by at least one processor perform:

determining a list of services to be loaded by a media switch;

loading the services;

if it is determined that other services are to be loaded, loading the other services by the media switch and ensuring a first service of the other services to load is an authentication service that is accepted from at least one trusted endpoint address;

wherein loading the other services comprises loading a presence service which maintains information on all endpoints associated with the media switch via an endpoint locator service that is running before any of the other services are loaded;

wherein the presence service maintains information comprising at least one of entity availability that indicates a service'"'"'s ability to accept connections or entity type that indicates one or more services offered by an endpoint; and

wherein the presence service is configured to publish its own presence with itself when loaded, and is further configured to attempt an additional attachment as a master presence service that is awarded to a presence service that first attempts to be the master presence service, wherein the master presence service is configured to provide synchronized access information to shared data elements.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein loading the authentication service comprises initiating the authentication service and the authentication service attempting to publish its presence with the presence service.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, further comprising the authentication service receiving an indication that the attempt to publish its presence failed and the authentication service again attempting to publish its presence after the presence service is loaded.