Electronic conferencing system capable of communicating data through a local area network

• US 6,580,695 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2002
• Issued: 06/17/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Uriarte, Vilma L., Klück, Joseph R., Su, Gene I., Gaddis, David W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yao, Kwang Bin
• Assistant Examiner(s): JONES, PRENELL P
• Application Number:
  US10/120,977
• Publication Number:
  US 20020110092A1
• Time in Patent Office: 432 Days
• Field of Search: 370/260-265, 370/230-235, 370/352, 370/468, 370/389, 370/401, 370/395, 709/204, 709/225-230, 709/219
• US Class Current: 370/261
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1836 with heterogeneous network architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport

Abstract

A method and apparatus capable of transmitting and receiving non-Local Area Network (LAN)electronic conferencing data over a LAN is disclosed. The method involves an electronic conferencing system with a communication stack conforming to a non-LAN based conferencing protocol. However, the communication stack exchanges the non-LAN data with the LAN. The communication stack may further include a transmission formatter conforming to the non-LAN based conferencing protocol and a modular interface layer, coupled to the transmission formatter. The modular interface layer exchanges the non-LAN data with the LAN.

Claims

1. An electronic conferencing system comprising a communications stack conforming to a non-Local Area Network (LAN) based conferencing protocol, the communication stack including a transmission formatter and being coupled to a LAN to exchange non-LAN data with the LAN, the non-LAN date conforming to formats supported by the non-LAN based conferencing protocol and the transmission formatter to operate with any combinations of non-LAN date conforming to the formats.

2. The electronic conferencing system according to claim 1, wherein said non-LAN data include at least one of audio information;

video information;

data collaboration information; and

control and indication information.

3. The electronic conferencing system according to claim 1, wherein said non-LAN based conferencing protocol is provided by Telecommunication Standardization Sector of International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) Recommendation H.320.

4. The electronic conferencing system according to claim 1, wherein said communication stack is capable of communicating the non-LAN data over the LAN through a gateway coupled to the LAN, to a standalone electronic conferencing system conforming to the non-LAN based conferencing protocol.

5. A method of communication non-Local Area Network (LAN) electronic conferencing data over a LAN, comprising:

conforming a conferencing system to a non-LAN based conferencing protocol, the conferencing system including a communication stack having a transmission formatter; and

conforming the communication stack to the non-LAN based conferencing protocol to exchange the non-LAN electronic conferencing data with the LAN, the non-LAN electronic conferencing data conforming to formats supported by the non-LAN based conferencing protocol, and the transmission formatter to operate with any combination of the non-LAN electronic conferencing data.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the non-LAN electronic conferencing data include any combinations of audio information;

video information;

data collaboration information; and

control and indication information.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein said non-LAN based conferencing protocol is provided by Telecommunication Standardization Sector of International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) Recommendation H.320.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein said communication stack is capable of communicating said electronic conferencing data over said LAN through a gateway, coupled to said LAN, to a standalone electronic conferencing system conforming to said non-LAN based conferencing protocol.

9. A machine readable medium having embodied thereon instructions, which when executed by a machine, causes said machine to:

transmit and receive non-LAN electronic conferencing data over a Local Area Network (LAN), said instructions comprising a communication stack having a transmission formatter and conforming to a non-LAN based conferencing protocol to exchange the non-LAN electronic conferencing data with the LAN, the non-LAN electronic conferencing data conforming to formats supported by the non-LAN based conferencing protocol, and the transmission formatter to operate with any combination of the electronic conferencing data.

10. The machine readable medium according to claim 9, wherein said electronic conferencing data include any combinations of audio information;

video information;

data collaboration information; and

control and indication information.

11. The machine readable medium according to claim 9, wherein said non-LAN based conferencing protocol is provided by Telecommunication Standardization Sector of International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) Recommendation H.320.

12. The machine readable medium according to claim 9, wherein said communication stack is capable of communicating said electronic conferencing data over said LAN through a gateway, coupled to said LAN, to a standalone electronic conferencing system conforming to said non-LAN based conferencing protocol.

13. A method of communicating non-Local Area Network (LAN) electronic conferencing data over a LAN, comprising:

receiving non-LAN data; and

conforming the received non-LAN data to a non-LAN based conferencing protocol;

using a module interface layer to define at least one function to operate with a non-LAN based conferencing system; and

using a transmission formatter to invoke the at least one function to transfer the non-LAN data to the LAN.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said invoking at least one function comprises invoking functions supported by Win32®

Application Programming Interface (API).

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein said non-LAN data include any combinations of audio information;

video information;

data collaboration information; and

control and indication information.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein said non-LAN based protocol is provided by Telecommunication Standardization Sector of International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) Recommendation H.320.

17. The method according to claim 13, wherein said communication stack is capable of communicating said electronic conferencing data over said LAN through a gateway, coupled to said LAN, to a standalone electronic conferencing system conforming to said non-LAN based conferencing protocol.

18. A system for transmitting and receiving non-LAN (Local Area Network) data over a LAN network comprising:

an application layer interface to receive non-LAN data;

a system control communicatively coupled to the application layer interface to provide control and indication information to a communication stack through the application layer interface;

the communication stack communicatively coupled to the application layer interface to format data for transmitting via a LAN by conforming itself to a non-LAN based protocol using;

a transmission formatter to collect and package the non-LAN data and control and indication information into a predetermined data packet format; and

a modular interface to coordinate and exchange data packet information with network interface hardware; and

the network interface hardware communicatively coupled to the communication stack to transmit the formatted data to a LAN.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein control and indication information comprise at least one of:

dialing information;

frame alignment information; and

transmission error information.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the modular interface layer coordinates and exchanges data packet information with the network interface hardware by providing at least one non-LAN based function for the transmission formatter to invoke.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the at least one non-LAN based function comprises functions supported by Win32®

Application Programming Interface (API).