Maintaining audio video conference continuity

• US 9,516,268 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2014
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Heda, Sneha J., Joshi, Sagar D., Moyal, Shailendra
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, JIGAR P
• Application Number:
  US14/228,800
• Publication Number:
  US 20150280970A1
• Time in Patent Office: 984 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

A computing device receives session description protocol (SDP) information including network parameters, from a plurality of client devices participating in an audio-video conference hosted by a primary conference host. The computing device selects a secondary conference host from the plurality of client devices. In response to receiving the SDP information from the plurality of client devices, the computing device sends a reply, including network parameter information identifying the secondary conference host, to the plurality of client devices of the audio-video conference. The computing device determines a failure of the primary conference host, wherein the failure is based, at least in part, on a violation of a threshold limit of a transmission rate of the primary conference host, and in response to determining the failure, the computing device sends information to activate the secondary conference host as the audio-video conference host, to the plurality of client devices.

Claims

1. A method for maintaining an audio-video conference, the method comprising:

a computing device receiving session description protocol information including network parameters and supported compression-decompression formats, from a plurality of client devices participating in an audio-video conference hosted by a primary conference host;

the computing device determining whether at least one of the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference is properly configured to perform audio-video mixing at an acceptable rate of streaming for the audio-video conference;

the computing device selecting a client device as a secondary conference host from the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference;

in response to receiving the session description protocol information from the plurality of client devices, the computing device sending a reply, including network parameter information identifying the secondary conference host, to the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference and the network parameters and supported compression-decompression formats of the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference to the client device selected as the secondary conference host;

the computing device determining a failure of the primary conference host affecting the audio-video conference, wherein the failure is based, at least in part, on a violation of a threshold limit of a transmission rate of the primary conference host; and

in response to determining the failure, the computing device sending information associated with activating the secondary conference host as a host of the audio-video conference, to the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the session description protocol information of the plurality of client devices includes an Internet protocol (IP) address, a port number, and information associated with compression and decompression (codec) capabilities of each of the plurality of client devices.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one client device participating in the audio-video conference is configured to perform audio-video mixing of content.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the primary conference host of the audio-video conference is a multipoint control unit (MCU).

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the failure of the primary conference host includes, at least one of, a termination of audio-video conference supporting hardware of the primary conference host, a termination of audio-video conference supporting software of the primary conference host, and a termination of a network connection of the primary conference host, to the audio-video conference.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the computing device selecting the secondary conference host from the plurality of client devices, other than the primary conference host, based on at least one of a privileged role of a user of one of the plurality of client devices, and network performance of each client device of the plurality of client devices.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the computing device determining a failure of the secondary conference host affecting the audio-video conference, wherein the failure is based, at least in part, on a violation of a threshold limit of a transmission rate of the secondary conference host;

in response to determining the failure of the secondary conference host, the computing device selecting a tertiary conference host from the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference, other than the primary conference host and the secondary conference host; and

the computing device sending to the tertiary conference host, the network parameters and supported compression-decompression formats of the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference, and sending information associated with activating the tertiary conference host as a host of the audio-video conference, to the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the failure of the secondary conference host includes, at least in part, a termination of audio-video conference supporting hardware of the secondary conference host, a termination of audio-video conference supporting software of the secondary conference host, or a termination of a network connection of the secondary conference host, to the audio-video conference.

9. A computer program product for maintaining an audio-video conference, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions readable by a processor to cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving session description protocol information including network parameters and supported compression-decompression formats, from a plurality of client devices participating in an audio-video conference hosted by a primary conference host;

determining whether at least one of the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference is properly configured to perform audio-video mixing at an acceptable rate of streaming for the audio-video conference;

selecting a client device as a secondary conference host from the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference;

in response to receiving the session description protocol information from the plurality of client devices, sending a reply, including network parameter information identifying the secondary conference host, to the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference and the network parameters and supported compression-decompression formats of the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference to the client device selected as the secondary conference host;

determining a failure of the primary conference host affecting the audio-video conference, wherein the failure is based, at least in part, on a violation of a threshold limit of a transmission rate of the primary conference host; and

in response to determining the failure, sending information associated with activating the secondary conference host as a host of the audio-video conference, to the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the session description protocol information of the plurality of client devices includes an Internet protocol (IP) address, a port number, and information associated with compression and decompression (codec) capabilities of each of the plurality of client devices.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein at least one client device participating in the audio-video conference is configured to perform audio-video mixing of content.

12. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the failure of the primary conference host includes at least one of, a termination of audio-video conference supporting hardware of the primary conference host, a termination of audio-video conference supporting software of the primary conference host, and a termination of a network connection of the primary conference host, to the audio-video conference.

13. The computer program product of claim 9, further comprising:

determining a failure of the secondary conference host affecting the audio-video conference, wherein the failure is based, at least in part, on a violation of a threshold limit of a transmission rate of the secondary conference host;

in response to determining the failure of the secondary conference host, selecting a tertiary conference host from the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference, other than the primary conference host and the secondary conference host; and

sending to the tertiary conference host, the network parameters and supported compression-decompression formats of the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference, and sending information associated with activating the tertiary conference host as a host of the audio-video conference, to the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the failure of the secondary conference host includes, at least one of, a termination of audio-video conference supporting hardware of the secondary conference host, a termination of audio-video conference supporting software of the secondary conference host, or a termination of a network connection of the secondary conference host, to the audio-video conference.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising:

selecting a tertiary conference host from the plurality of client devices, other than the primary conference host and the secondary conference host, based on at least one of a privileged role of a user of one of the plurality of client devices, and network performance of each client device of the plurality of client devices.

16. A computer system for maintaining an audio-video conference, the computer system comprising:

one or more computer processors;

one or more computer-readable storage media;

program instructions stored on the computer-readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more processors, the program instructions comprising;

program instructions to receive session description protocol information including network parameters and supported compression-decompression formats, from a plurality of client devices participating in an audio-video conference hosted by a primary conference host;

program instructions to determine whether at least one of the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference is properly configured to perform audio-video mixing at an acceptable rate of streaming for the audio-video conference;

program instructions to select a client device as a secondary conference host from the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference;

in response to receiving the session description protocol information from the plurality of client devices, program instructions to send a reply, including network parameter information identifying the secondary conference host, to the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference and the network parameters and supported compression-decompression formats of the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference to the client device selected as the secondary conference host;

in response to receiving the session description protocol information from the plurality of client devices, program instructions to send a reply, including network parameter information identifying the secondary conference host, to the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference and the network parameters and supported compression-decompression formats of the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference to the client device selected as the secondary conference host;

program instructions to determine a failure of the primary conference host affecting the audio-video conference, wherein the failure is based, at least in part, on a violation of a threshold limit of a transmission rate of the primary conference host; and

in response to determining the failure, program instructions to send information associated with activating the secondary conference host as a host of the audio-video conference, to the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference.

17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein at least one client device connected to the audio-video conference is configured to perform audio-video mixing of content.

18. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the failure of the primary conference host includes, at least one of, a termination of audio-video conference supporting hardware of the primary conference host, a termination of audio-video conference supporting software of the primary conference host, and a termination of a network connection of the primary conference host, to the audio-video conference.

19. The computer system of claim 16, further comprising:

program instructions to determine that the transmission rate of the secondary conference host violates a pre-determined bit rate/frame rate threshold;

in response to determining the transmission rate of the secondary conference host violates the pre-determined bit rate/frame rate threshold, program instructions to select a tertiary conference host from the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference, other than the primary conference host and the secondary conference host; and

program instructions to send network information associated with the tertiary conference host, to the plurality of client devices participating in the audio-video conference.

20. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the failure of the primary conference host affecting the audio-video conference includes, at least one of, a termination of audio-video conference supporting hardware of the secondary conference host, a termination of audio-video conference supporting software of the secondary conference host, or a termination of a network connection of the secondary conference host, to the audio-video conference.