US 2003/0145054 A1 · Conferencing architecture employing media servers and enhanced session initiation protocol

Abstract

A conferencing system that can acess advanced conferencing features while following essentially the same call flow as conventional conferencing systems. The conferencing system includes a computer network, and at least one conferencing application server, at least one media server, and at least one user agent connected to the network. The conferencing application server establishes and manages multimedia conferences by engaging in Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling with the user agents and the media server. Once the conference is established, the media server generates multimedia data such as audio data and conveys the data to the conference participants. In order to access advanced conferencing features, the conferencing system employs an enhanced SIP signaling technique including a conferencing Application Programming Interface (API) implemented by incorporating Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) messages in the bodies of respective SIP request/response messages. The XML messages are incorporated in the SIP request/response message bodies to convey conference specific commands and/or parameters that cannot be easily described via the Session Description Protocol (SDP).

Claims37

Dependent claims

A conferencing system, comprising:

a computer network;
and
a plurality of logical devices communicably connected to the network, a first logical device being configured to establish at least one conference and to control access of one or more prospective conference participants to the conference, at least one second logical device being configured to request access to and to participate in the conference, and at least one third logical device being configured to provide at least one conferencing service to the conference participants,
wherein the first logical device is further configured to engage in call control signaling with at least one of the second and third logical devices, the call control signaling employing a predetermined signaling protocol for session initiation and comprising conveying at least one request message including at least one command in a predetermined payload format to access at least one feature of the conferencing services provided by the third logical device.

1 more element

A method of operating a conferencing system, the conferencing system including a computer network and a plurality of logical devices communicably connected to the network, comprising the steps of:

establishing at least one conference and controlling access of one or more prospective conference participants to the conference by a first logical device communicably connected to the network;
requesting access to the conference for subsequent participation therein by at least one second logical device communicably connected to the network;
and
providing one or more conferencing services to the conference participants by at least one third logical device communicably connected to the network,
wherein the steps of establishing and controlling further include engaging in call control signaling with at least one of the second and third logical devices by the first logical device, the call control signaling employing a predetermined signaling protocol for session initiation and comprising conveying at least one request message including at least one command in a predetermined payload format to access at least one feature of the conferencing services provided by the third logical device.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Conferencing architecture employing media servers and enhanced session initiation protocol

Life of this patent

Conferencing architecture employing media servers and enhanced session initiation protocol

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims37