HANDLING CONFERENCES USING HIGHLY-DISTRIBUTED AGENTS

• US 20160309037A1
• Filed: 04/17/2015
• Published: 10/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rosenberg, Jonathan D., Griffin, Keith
• Granted Patent: US 9,948,786 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communication real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM] H04L51/04; selective video distribution H04N21/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1093 by adding participants; by removing participants
• 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 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems

Abstract

Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for directing conferences to on-premises media agents and cloud-based media agents. A centralized controller and a plurality of cloud-based media agents are disposed within a cloud or other remote or virtual network, and a plurality of on-premises media agents are provided on-premises. The centralized controller manages the directing and forwarding of conferences and is in communication with the cloud-based media agents and the on-premises media agents.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

registering a plurality of on-premises media agents with a cloud-based controller, the plurality of on-premises media agents disposed at a physical location of an enterprise and the cloud-based controller disposed at a cloud location that is remote from the physical location of the enterprise;

registering a plurality of cloud-based media agents with the cloud-based controller, the plurality of cloud-based media agents disposed at the cloud location that is remote from the physical location of the enterprise;

receiving a request from a client device to join a conference at the cloud-based controller; and

selecting at least one on-premises media agent or at least one cloud-based media agent to handle the request depending upon at least one factor associated with the conference that the client device is requesting to join.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein directing the request comprises determining that a capacity of on-premises media agents exceeds a limit.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein directing the request comprises determining that a first connection attempt to a first media agent cannot be made and connecting to a second media agent.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the factors associated with the conference comprise a capacity of the media agents.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the factors associated with the conference comprise a security type of the conference, such that secure conferences are directed to on-premises media agents when the on-premises media agents are deemed to be more secure than the cloud-based media agents.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the factors associated with the conference comprise a security type of the conference, such that secure conference are directed to cloud-based media agents when the cloud-based media agents are deemed to be more secure than the on-premises media agents.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the factors associated with the conference comprise a media type of the conference, such that conferences of a first media type are directed to on-premises media agents and conferences of a second media type are directed to cloud-based media agents.

8. A system comprising:

a plurality of on-premises media agents disposed at a physical location of an enterprise;

a plurality of cloud-based media agents disposed at a cloud location that is remote from the physical location of an enterprise; and

a controller disposed at the cloud location that selects at least one on-premises media agent or at least one cloud-based media agent to handle a request to join a conference depending upon certain factors associated with the conference.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the conference is directed based upon capacity of on-premises media agents exceeding a limit.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising an on-premises STUN load balancer that monitors a capacity of each of the plurality of on-premises media agents and a cloud-based STUN load balancer that monitors a capacity of each of the plurality of cloud-based media agents.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the conference is directed based upon a media type of the conference.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the conference is directed based upon a security type of the conference.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein secure conferences are directed to at least one of the plurality of on-premises media agents and non-secure conferences are directed to at least one of the plurality of cloud-based media agents.

14. A method comprising:

receiving, by a centralized controller, a message from a requester requesting to join a conference;

attempting a first connection to a first media agent, the first media agent comprising at least one of a plurality of on-premises media agents at an enterprise; and

attempting a second connection to a second media agent when a result of attempting the first connection to the first media agent is not successful, the second media agent comprising at least one of a plurality of cloud-based media agents at a cloud location remote from the enterprise.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the result of attempting the first connection to the first media agent is not successful when the first media agent has reached or exceeded a capacity limit.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the result of attempting the first connection to the first media agent is not successful when a connection attempt to the first connection is rejected by a STUN load balancer.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the controller monitors a capacity of the cloud-based media agents and the on-premises media agents.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein a cloud-based STUN load balancer monitors a capacity of the cloud-based media agents.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein an on-premises STUN load balancer monitors a capacity of the on-premises media agents.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein a cloud-based STUN load balancer monitors a capacity of the cloud-based media agents and an on-premises STUN load balancer monitors a capacity of the on-premises media agents.