Method and apparatus for dynamically forming multimedia emulated local area networks
US5812552A · kind A · utility
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 19, 1996 |
| Grant date | Sep 22, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 19, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L2012/5642
- WIPO fieldTelecommunications
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A temporary multimedia ELAN is formed on top of one or more existing ELANs between those end-stations (121-1, 121-2, 111-1) participating in a multimedia session, such as a video conference, at the time of initiating the session. At the end of the session the temporary ELAN is torn down. When the temporary ELAN is created an available LAN Emulation Server (LES) (241) and an available Broadcast and Unknown Server (BUS) (243) are allocated to serve those end-stations participating in the multimedia session. The BUS also serves as a multicast server to multicast a multimedia stream from one end-station to each other end-station on the temporary ELAN. The initiator of a session accesses a Multimedia Session Manager (401), which oversees and manages the session and coordinates the necessary resources. An ELAN Configuration (402) serves to dynamically assign IP addresses to end-stations to ensure that each end-station on the temporary ELAN is on a single subnet, to receive the configuration attributes of each end-station that is to be connected on the temporary ELAN, to find an available LES and BUS to serve the temporary multimedia ELAN, and to coordinate establishment of the temporary …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.