Patent · US Active

Method and apparatus for distributed conferences

US8149740B2 · kind B2 · utility

0Cited by
8References
19Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 25, 2007
Grant dateApr 3, 2012
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 30, 2030

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L12/66
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for enabling an event such as a telecollaboration or conference event in a communication network. The apparatus is tree-structured, and comprises a main site and one or more descendent sites, each site comprising one or more servers. Each site is a parent site, a descendent site, or both. Two sites may be connected via a dedicated or controlled connection. The apparatus further comprises client devices, each client device connecting to one site. The method of the disclosed invention comprises passing information between a client device and a server or between two servers exactly once. The information is propagated by each server to all the components connected to the server, i.e. the parent site if any, descendent sites if any, and client devices if any, excluding the component from which the server received the information.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.