Multimedia server
First Claim
1. Apparatus for providing multimedia services to local area network (LAN) emulation clients (LECs), comprising:
- a plurality of sub-Emulated LANs (ELANs);
a contronect network, said contronect network including an address server, a broadcast/route server, a configuration server and a multimedia server manager, each of said sub-ELANs being connected to the contronect network via a point-to-point connection, and said contronect network configuring sub-ELANs of said plurality of sub-ELANs into a plurality of ELANs;
a plurality of separate multimedia servers each adapted for presenting itself as a multimedia server to any of said ELANs as a LAN emulation client (LEC) thereof in response to instructions from said contronect network, said multimedia servers each being connected to said multimedia server manager by a point-to-point connection.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A pool of multimedia servers, which may be geographically diverse, are available to be allocated to serve one of at least two ELANs served by an ELAN contronect network. These multimedia servers are a) connected to, b) dynamically allocated to sub-ELANs, and c) managed by, a multimedia server manager, which is included as part of the ELAN contronect network. In particular, each of the multimedia servers is capable of having its addresses dynamically reconfigured in response to commands from the multimedia server manager to match that of an ELAN to which it is being made available, so that the multimedia server becomes a part of that ELAN. The multimedia server manager obtains a layer-3 address from address server 427 of the ELAN contronect network which it then assigns to the multimedia server so that the multimedia server appears to be a part of the ELAN to which it is assigned to serve. The multimedia server manager also supplies to the multimedia server the LES and BUS address of a sub-ELAN of the ELAN to which it is assigned to serve. The multimedia server can then join with the LES and BUS as a LEC in that sub-ELAN.
113 Citations
33 Claims
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1. Apparatus for providing multimedia services to local area network (LAN) emulation clients (LECs), comprising:
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a plurality of sub-Emulated LANs (ELANs); a contronect network, said contronect network including an address server, a broadcast/route server, a configuration server and a multimedia server manager, each of said sub-ELANs being connected to the contronect network via a point-to-point connection, and said contronect network configuring sub-ELANs of said plurality of sub-ELANs into a plurality of ELANs; a plurality of separate multimedia servers each adapted for presenting itself as a multimedia server to any of said ELANs as a LAN emulation client (LEC) thereof in response to instructions from said contronect network, said multimedia servers each being connected to said multimedia server manager by a point-to-point connection. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method for use in an LAN emulation client (LEC) comprising the steps of:
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determining in said LEC that a multimedia service provided by a multimedia server is required; and connecting said LEC directly to a multimedia server manager of an Emulated LAN (ELAN) contronect network to obtain a layer-2 address of said multimedia server to provide said service when said LEC does not have stored therein the layer-2 address of said multimedia server.
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33. A method for use in an LAN emulation client (LEC) comprising the steps of:
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determining in said LEC that a multimedia service provided by a multimedia server is required; and connecting said LEC directly to a multimedia server manager of an Emulated LAN (ELAN) contronect network to obtain a layer-2 address of an idle multimedia server to provide said service when said LEC only has stored layer-2 addresses for busy multimedia servers.
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Specification