Method and device for conference reservation

• US 9,749,196 B2
• Filed: 07/26/2013
• Issued: 08/29/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Original Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Inventors: Wu, Yongming
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tammy
• Application Number:
  US14/419,522
• Publication Number:
  US 20150215175A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,495 Days
• Field of Search: 709226, 709204, 370260, 348700
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/152 Multipoint control units therefor

Abstract

Disclosed are a method and a device for conference reservation, wherein the method includes: the conference time information and the position selection range information are matched with pre-stored conference resource information; if the matching succeeds, the conference is successfully reserved; if the matching fails, the conference is not successfully reserved; wherein the conference resource information includes idle or occupied status information based on a time axis for all terminals and resource consumption status information based on the time axis for a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU). The method and device according to the present disclosure can improve apparently the success rate of conference reservation, and can improve the utilization of equipment resources, thereby leading to an improvement on productivity.

Claims

1. A method for conference reservation, comprising:

acquiring conference time information of a conference and position selection range information of one or more terminals joining in the conference;

matching the conference time information and the position selection range information with pre-stored conference resource information;

if the matching succeeds, the conference is successfully reserved;

if the matching fails, the conference is not successfully reserved;

wherein the conference resource information comprises idle or occupied status information based on a time axis for all terminals, and resource consumption status information based on the time axis for a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU);

wherein the conference time information comprises a conference duration and a conferencing time interval;

and wherein the matching comprises;

determining, among the conference resource information, whether there is a time window whose duration is equal to the conference duration within the conferencing time interval, within which time window there is at least one idle terminal in each position range according to the position selection range information of the terminal(s) and within which time window there are available MCU resources;

if there is the time window, it is indicated that the matching succeeds, otherwise, it is indicated that the matching fails.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the time window is determined by:

selecting a starting of the conferencing time interval as a starting of a first candidate for the time window and selecting the conference duration as a duration of the first candidate for the time window;

determining whether the first candidate for the time window is successfully matched, if Yes, regarding the first candidate for the time window as the time window, if No, delaying, for an increment, the starting of the first candidate for the time window and re-determining whether it is successfully matched; and

repeating the delaying and re-determining until it is successfully matched or all conferencing time intervals are traversed completely.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

when the conference is ended, modifying statuses of terminals joining in the conference and statuses of the MCU to an idle status and saving the idle status.

4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

when the conference is ended, modifying statuses of terminals joining in the conference and statuses of the MCU to an idle status and saving the idle status.

5. A conference reservation device, comprising:

an input unit configured to acquire conference time information of a conference and position selection range information of one or more terminals joining in the conference;

a reservation unit configured to match the conference time information and the position selection range information with pre-stored conference resource information;

if the matching succeeds, the conference is successfully reserved;

if the matching fails, the conference is not successfully reserved;

wherein the conference resource information comprises idle or occupied status information based on a time axis for all terminals, and resource consumption status information based on the time axis for a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU);

wherein the conference time information comprises a conference duration and a conferencing time interval;

wherein the reservation unit is configured to determine, among the conference resource information, whether there is a time window whose duration is equal to the conference duration within the conferencing time interval, within which time window there is at least one idle terminal in each position range according to the position selection range information of the terminal(s) and within which time window there are available MCU resources;

if there is the time window, it is indicated that the matching succeeds, otherwise, it is indicated that the matching fails.

6. The device according to claim 5, wherein the reservation unit is configured to select a starting of the conferencing time interval as a starting of a first candidate for the time window and select the conference duration as a duration of the first candidate for the time window;

determine whether the first candidate for the time window is successfully matched, if Yes, regard the first candidate for the time window as the time window, if No, delay, for an increment, the starting of the first candidate for the time window and re-determine whether it is successfully matched; and

repeat the delaying and re-determining until it is successfully matched or all conferencing time intervals are traversed completely.

7. The device according to claim 5, wherein the reservation unit is configured to, when the conference is ended, modify statuses of terminals joining in the conference and statuses of the MCU to an idle status and save the idle status.

8. The device according to claim 6, wherein the reservation unit is configured to, when the conference is ended, modify statuses of terminals joining in the conference and statuses of the MCU to an idle status and save the idle status.