Establishing a multiparty session by sending invitations in parallel

• US 20060268753A1
• Filed: 05/27/2005
• Published: 11/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Moore, Timothy M., Tidwell, Paul D., Xiang, Dong
• Granted Patent: US 7,882,176 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/261
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0062 Provisions for network management

Abstract

A method and system for establishing a multiparty session with a mesh configuration by sending out invitations to endpoints in parallel is provided. To initiate a session, an initiating endpoint sends invitations in parallel to the endpoints that are to be in the session. When the initiating endpoint receives an acceptance, it then sends to the accepting endpoint an indication of the other endpoints that are currently in the session. When an accepting endpoint receives the indication of the endpoints in the session, the accepting endpoint sends an invitation to establish a dialog to each of the indicated endpoints. When an endpoint that is in the session receives such an invitation, it can automatically accept the invitation because it is already participating in the session.

Claims

1. A method in an initiating endpoint for establishing a multiparty session, the method comprising:

sending in parallel to each of a plurality of endpoints an invitation to establish a dialog; and

after receiving an acceptance from an invited endpoint,

indicating that a dialog is established between the initiating endpoint and the invited endpoint; and

sending to the invited endpoint an indication of the invited endpoints with which the initiating endpoint has already established a dialog so that the invited endpoint can establish a dialog with each indicated invited endpoint.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein an endpoint of a session is designated as a manager and when a new endpoint is to be added to the established session, the manager endpoint sends an invitation to the new endpoint so that a dialog can be established between the manager endpoint and the new endpoint and sends an indication of the endpoints in the session to the new endpoint so that the new endpoint can establish a dialog with each indicated endpoint.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein when an endpoint other than the manager endpoint is to add a new endpoint to the session, that other endpoint sends a referral identifying that other endpoint to the manager endpoint indicating that the other endpoint is to be invited to join the session.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the manager endpoint maintains a roster of endpoints in the session.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein when an endpoint in the session is no longer designated as a manager endpoint, sending to the other endpoints in the session a request that the requesting endpoint be the manager, wherein upon receiving the request an endpoint decides between itself and the requesting endpoint which should be the manager and sends an indication of its decision to the requesting endpoint.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein when the requesting endpoint receives an indication from each other endpoint that the requesting endpoint should be the manager, the requesting endpoint sends to each other endpoint an indication that the requesting endpoint is the manager endpoint.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the indication of the endpoints in the session is included with the invitation sent to the new endpoint.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein an invited endpoint accepts the invitation after a participant at that endpoint indicates to accept the invitation.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein an invited endpoint establishes a dialog with an indicated endpoint by sending an invitation to establish a dialog to the indicated endpoint.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein after receiving the invitation to establish a dialog, the indicated endpoint automatically sends an acceptance to the invited participant.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the endpoints communicate using the Session Initiation Protocol.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the session is a mesh in which each endpoint in the session has a dialog established with each other endpoint in the session.

13. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a first endpoint of a session to join a session by a method comprising:

receiving from a second endpoint an invitation to establish a dialog that includes an indication of other endpoints in the session, wherein the second endpoint sends invitations in parallel to a plurality of endpoints; and

after receiving the invitation,

sending to the second endpoint an acceptance of the invitation; and

sending to the other endpoints in the session an invitation to establish a dialog.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein when the first endpoint is a manager endpoint and a new endpoint is to be added to the session, the first endpoint sends an invitation to the new endpoint so that a dialog can be established between the first endpoint and the new endpoint and sends an indication of the endpoints in the session to the new endpoint so that the new endpoint can establish a dialog with each indicated endpoint.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein when the first endpoint is not a manager endpoint and a new endpoint is to be added to the session, the first endpoint sends to the manager endpoint a referral identifying the endpoint to be added.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the invitation identifies endpoints of pending participants.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 including receiving an acknowledgement that indicates endpoints in the session that were not indicated in the invitation.

18. A computer system at an endpoint for establishing a multiparty session, the computer system comprising:

an invitation component that

sends in parallel to each of a plurality of endpoints that are not in the session an invitation to establish a dialog, and sends an indication of the invited endpoints with which a dialog has already been established, and

sends to an endpoint that is in the session an invitation to establish a dialog; and

an acceptance component that

receives when the endpoint is not in the session an invitation to establish a dialog of the session, sends an acceptance, and receives an indication of endpoints in the session so that the endpoint can establish dialogs with other endpoints in the session, and

receives when the endpoint is in the session an invitation to establish a dialog of the session and sends an acceptance.

19. The computer system of claim 18 wherein the acceptance component sends an acceptance automatically when the endpoint is in the session and sends an acceptance after a participant indication when the endpoint is not in the session.

20. The computer system of claim 18 including a component to elect a manager endpoint that is responsible for sending invitations to endpoints not in the session.