Methods and systems for linking virtual meeting attendees over a network

• US 7,571,210 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2003
• Issued: 08/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Iocom UK Limited
• Original Assignee: inSORS Integrated Communications, Inc.
• Inventors: Arnold, Jonathan D., Swanson, Jon N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Walsh; John B.
• Application Number:
  US10/727,471
• Publication Number:
  US 20040111472A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,070 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/204
• 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 12/1881 with schedule organisation, e.g. priority, sequence management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• 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 65/4038 with floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1324 Conference call
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13337 Picturephone, videotelephony

Abstract

The present invention is directed to methods and computer program products for communicating real time data streams between a plurality of virtual meeting attendees over a digital data network. One exemplary method of the invention includes the steps of receiving a plurality of real time data streams from each of a plurality of virtual meeting attendees, of linking a first and a second of the real time data streams from each of the attendees to a first network interface, of linking only the first data stream from each of the attendees to a second network interface, and of linking only the second data stream from each of the attendees to a third network interface.

Claims

1. A method for communicating real time data streams between a plurality of virtual meeting attendees over a digital data network comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of real time data streams that include a first and a second real time data stream communicated from at least one attendee computer at each of a plurality of virtual meeting attendees, each of said plurality of real time data streams encoded in a packet based protocol that includes a discrete control portion and a discrete data portion;

linking said first real time data stream from each of the plurality of virtual attendees to a first network interface that is separate from said at least one attendee computers, said first network interface includes a first port linked to said first real time data stream data portion to and a second port linked to said first real time data stream control portion;

linking said second real time data stream from each of said plurality of virtual meeting attendees to a second network interface that is separate from said at least one attendee computers, said second interface including a first port linked to said second real time data stream data portion and a second port linked to said second real time data stream control portion wherein said data and control portions are communicated through different ports; and

,

allowing a requestor to selectively link to one but not the other of said first and said network interfaces.

2. A method as defined by claim 1 and further including the steps of recording the usage of said requestor.

3. A method as defined by claim 2 wherein the step of recording said usage includes recording the amount of time that said requestor selectively links to said one but not said other of said first and said second interfaces, and of recording the time said requestor disconnects from said one network interface.

4. A method as defined by claim 2 wherein the step of recording said usage includes recording the amount of data consumed by said requestor.

5. A method as defined by claim 1 wherein said first real time data stream is audio data and said second real time data stream is video data.

6. A method as defined by claim 1 wherein said plurality of real time data streams further includes a third real time data stream, and further including the step of linking said third real time data stream from each of said plurality of virtual meeting attendees to a third network interface.

7. A method as defined by claim 6 wherein said plurality of real time data streams includes a total of n streams, and further including the step of linking each of said n streams from each of said virtual meeting attendees to one of n network interfaces, where n is any positive integer.

8. A method as defined by claim 7 wherein said first real time data stream from said n streams is video data, wherein said second real time data stream from said n streams is audio data, wherein said third real time data stream from said n streams is application data, and wherein a fourth real time data stream from said n streams is auxiliary data.

9. A method as defined by claim 1 wherein said first and second network interfaces are within a bridge.

10. A method as defined by claim 1 wherein said first and second interfaces are each one port.

11. A method as defined by claim 1 wherein said first and second interfaces are each a plurality of ports.

12. A method as defined by claim 1 and further including the preliminary step of querying each of said plurality of virtual meeting attendees to identify said first and second real time data streams.

13. A method as defined by claim 1 wherein said plurality of virtual meeting attendees are a first plurality of virtual meeting first attendees at a first virtual meeting, and wherein the method further includes the steps of:

receiving a second plurality of real time data streams from each of a plurality of second attendees of a second virtual meeting, said second virtual meeting different from said first virtual meeting wherein said first attendees from said first virtual meeting are not in communication with said second attendees from said second virtual meeting, said second plurality of real time data streams from each of said plurality of second virtual meeting second attendees including a first and a second real time data stream;

linking only said first real time data stream from each of said plurality of second virtual meeting second attendees to a third network interface; and

,

linking only said second real time data stream from each of said plurality of second virtual meeting second attendees to a fourth network interface.

14. A method as defined by claim 13 wherein said first real time data streams from each of said first plurality of first virtual meeting attendees and said first real time data streams from each of said plurality of second virtual meeting second attendees are video data streams, and wherein said second real time data streams from each of said first plurality of first virtual meeting first attendees and said second real time data streams from each of said plurality of second virtual meeting second attendees are audio data streams.

15. A method as defined by claim 1 wherein said plurality of virtual meeting attendees are physically present in a plurality of conference rooms, and wherein at least a portion of said conference rooms have a plurality of cameras for communicating a plurality of real time video streams.

16. A method as defined by claim 1 and further including the step of designating at least one of said first and second network interfaces as a high bandwidth interface, and of connecting the highest bandwidth data stream from said plurality of real time data streams to said high bandwidth interface.

17. A method as defined by claim 1 wherein at least one of said first and second network interfaces is an interface between unicast and multicast communications.

18. A computer program product for linking data communications between a plurality of users in each of a plurality of virtual meetings on a data network, the program product comprising computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable medium that when executed cause one or more computers to:

receive a first plurality of real time data streams from each of a plurality of attendees at a first meeting, said plurality of real time data streams including at least one real time video data stream and at least one real time audio data stream from each of said plurality of first meeting attendees;

receive a second plurality of real time data streams from each of a plurality attendees at a second meeting, said second virtual meeting occurring at least partially concurrently with said first virtual meeting, said second plurality of real time data streams including at least one real time video data stream and at least one real time audio data stream from each of said second virtual meeting attendees;

link only said real time video data streams from said plurality of first meeting attendees to a first network interface and linking only said real time audio data streams from said plurality of first meeting attendees to a second network interface;

link only said real time video data streams from said plurality of second meeting attendees to a third network interface and linking only said real time audio data streams from said plurality of second meeting attendees to a fourth network interface;

allow a requestor to selectively choose which of said interfaces to receive data streams from whereby said requestor may choose to receive data streams from only one of said first, second, third or fourth interfaces; and

,

assign identifiers to each of said network interfaces, said identifier for said first network interface including A and X, said identifier for said network second interface including A and Y, said identifier for said third network interface including B and X, and said identifier for said fourth network interface including B and Y, where A is an identifier for said first virtual meeting, B is an identifier for said second virtual meeting, X is an identifier for an interface having only video data, and Y is an identifier for an interface having only audio data.

19. A computer program product as defined by claim 18 wherein the program instructions further cause the one or more computers to assign an identifier to each of said first, second, third and fourth interfaces, said identifier having inherent knowledge that describes the content of the data streams linked thereto.