Transmission management system, transmission system, and transmission management system program

• US 9,232,184 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2011
• Issued: 01/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Maeda, Kaoru, Umehara, Naoki, Asai, Takahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Joseph J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phung-Hoang J.
• Application Number:
  US13/996,784
• Publication Number:
  US 20130278712A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,476 Days
• Field of Search: 348/14.08, 348/14.09
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 47/72 using reservation actions during connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4038 with floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

When terminals perform communication through a reservation, a management unit manages terminal identification information identifying each terminal and reservation identification information identifying the reservation. When a first terminal performs communication through a predetermined reservation, a receiving unit receives, from the first terminal, a request to acquire state of a second transmission terminal. A reservation extracting unit extracts the reservation identification information associated with terminal identification information identifying the second terminal from the management unit. A determining unit determines whether the reservation identified by the extracted reservation identification information matches the predetermined reservation. A transmitting unit transmits first state information indicating first state of the second terminal to the first terminal when the determining unit determines that the reservation matches the predetermined reservation, but transmits second state information indicating second state of the second terminal when the determining unit determines that the reservation does not match the predetermined reservation.

Claims

1. A transmission management system, comprising:

a memory that, when transmission terminals perform communication through a reservation, stores transmission terminal identification information used to identify each transmission terminal and reservation identification information used to identify the reservation so as to be associated with each other;

a receiver that receives, from a first transmission terminal, a request to acquire a state of a second transmission terminal participating in a session corresponding to a predetermined reservation, the request including a reservation identifier and being transmitted from the first transmission terminal when a user of the first transmission terminal selects the session corresponding to the predetermined reservation;

processing circuitry that extracts the reservation identification information associated with transmission terminal identification information used to identify the second transmission terminal from the memory when the receiver receives the request, and determines whether the extracted reservation identification information matches the reservation identifier; and

a transmitter that, when the processing circuitry determines that the reservation identification information matches the reservation identifier, transmits first state information indicating a first state of the second transmission terminal to the first transmission terminal so as to cause the first state to be displayed on a screen of the first transmission terminal as a state related to the predetermined reservation of the second transmission terminal, but when the processing circuitry determines that the reservation identification information does not match the reservation identifier, transmits second state information indicating a second state of the second transmission terminal to the first transmission terminal so as to cause the second state to be displayed on the screen of the first transmission terminal as the state related to the predetermined reservation of the second transmission terminal, wherein the first state indicates that the second transmission terminal has already entered a session based on the predetermined reservation, and the second state indicates that the second transmission terminal is participating in another session different from the session based on the predetermined reservation,

wherein the processing circuitry causes the transmitter to transmit, to the first transmission terminal, the first state information, which causes the first transmission terminal to display a first icon in a destination list on a screen, and to transmit, to the first transmission terminal, the second state information, which causes the first transmission terminal to display a second icon different from the first icon in the destination list on the screen.

2. The transmission management system according to claim 1, wherein the memory, when communication between the transmission terminals is reserved, stores reservation identification information used to identify the reservation and transmission terminal identification information used to identify the transmission terminals that are reserved to perform the reserved communication so as to be associated with each other;

and

the processing circuitry, when the receiver receives the request, extracts the transmission terminal identification information used to identify the second transmission terminal which is associated with the reservation identification information used to identify the predetermined reservation from the memory.

3. The transmission management system according to claim 1,

wherein, when the extracted reservation identification information is identical to the reservation identifier used to identify the predetermined reservation, the processing circuitry determines that the reservation matches the predetermined reservation, but when the extracted reservation identification information is not identical to the reservation identifier used to identify the predetermined reservation, the processing circuitry determines that the reservation does not match the predetermined reservation.

4. A transmission system, comprising:

a plurality of transmission terminals that perform content data communication therebetween through a communication network; and

the transmission management system according to claim 1.

5. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing a transmission management system program that is used in the transmission management system according to claim 1 and causes the transmission management system to perform:

receiving a request to acquire a state of a second transmission terminal from a first transmission terminal participating in a session corresponding to a predetermined reservation, the request including a reservation identifier and being transmitted from the first transmission terminal when a user of the first transmission terminal selects the session corresponding to the predetermined reservation;

extracting reservation identification information associated with transmission terminal identification information used to identify the second transmission terminal from the memory when the request is received;

determining whether the extracted reservation identification information matches the reservation identifier; and

transmitting, when it is determined that the reservation identification information matches the reservation identifier, the first state information indicating the first state of the second transmission terminal to the first transmission terminal so as to cause the first state to be displayed on a screen of the first transmission terminal as a state related to the predetermined reservation of the second transmission terminal, but transmitting, when it is determined that the reservation identification information does not match the reservation identifier, the second state information indicating the second state of the second transmission terminal to the first transmission terminal so as to cause the second state to be displayed on the screen of the first transmission terminal as the state related to the predetermined reservation of the second transmission terminal.

7. The transmission management system of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry determines whether an operating state of the second transmission terminal is busy before the processing circuitry determines that the reservation identification information matches the reservation identifier.

8. The transmission management system of claim 7, wherein the transmitter transmits, to the first transmission terminal, third state information indicating a third state of the second transmission terminal, when the processing circuitry determines that the operating state of the second transmission is not busy, wherein the third state indicates that the second transmission terminal is off line.

6. A transmission management method performed in a transmission management system, the method comprising:

storing in a memory, when transmission terminals perform communication through a reservation, transmission terminal identification information used to identify each transmission terminal and reservation identification information used to identify the reservation so as to be associated with each other;

receiving a request to acquire a state of a second transmission terminal from a first transmission terminal participating in a session corresponding to a predetermined reservation, the request including a reservation identifier and being transmitted from the first transmission terminal when a user of the first transmission terminal selects the session corresponding to the predetermined reservation;

extracting the reservation identification information associated with transmission terminal identification information used to identify the second transmission terminal from the memory when the request is received;

determining whether the extracted reservation identification information matches the reservation identifier; and

transmitting, when it is determined that the reservation identification information matches the reservation identifier, first state information indicating a first state of the second transmission terminal to the first transmission terminal so as to cause the first state to be displayed on a screen of the first transmission terminal as a state related to the predetermined reservation of the second transmission terminal, but transmitting, when it is determined that the reservation identification information does not match the reservation identifier, second state information indicating a second state of the second transmission terminal to the first transmission terminal so as to cause the second state to be displayed on the screen of the first transmission terminal as the state related to the predetermined reservation of the second transmission terminal, wherein the first state indicates that the second transmission terminal has already entered a session based on the predetermined reservation, and the second state indicates that the second transmission terminal is participating in another session different from the session based on the predetermined reservation,

wherein the transmitting step includes transmitting, to the first transmission terminal, the first state information, which causes the first transmission terminal to display a first icon in a destination list on a screen, and to transmitting, to the first transmission terminal, the second state information, which causes the first transmission terminal to display a second icon different from the first icon in the destination list on the screen.