# US 2020/0267010 A1 · Conference manager (cm) for low bandwidth video conferencing > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2020/0267010 A1 - Document ID: US20200267010A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 16/752,472 - Filed: 2020-01-24 - Published: 2020-08-20 - Earliest claimed: 2019-01-25 - Assignees: Tata Consultancy Services Limited - Applicants: Tata Consultancy Services Limited - Inventors: Abhijan BHATTACHARYYA; Suvrat AGRAWAL; Hemant Kumar RATH; Arpan PAL - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20200267010A1 ## CPC - H04L 12/1827: {Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation} - H04L 12/1831: {Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status} - H04L 12/1868: {Measures taken after transmission, e.g. acknowledgments} - H04L 47/36: by determining packet size, e.g. maximum transfer unit [MTU] - H04M 3/567: {Multimedia conference systems} - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) - H04M: TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION (circuits for controlling other apparatus via a telephone cable and not involving telephone switching apparatus G08) ## Abstract Video conferencing involves transmission of video as well as audio over a network between people involved in the video conferencing, over a network. Typically, quality of conference sessions are affected by quality of network connection. If the bandwidth of the network is low, that that may cause call quality issues or call drops, which is not desirable especially in certain applications such as a surgery over video conferencing. Disclosed herein is a Conference Manager (CM) that can facilitate video conferencing over a low bandwidth network. The CM uses a producer unit and a consumer unit, for video capture and transmission, and a communication device for audio capture and transmission. The CM captures and combines audio and video data at a receiving end of the communication network. The CM also uses a fast block-wise data transfer mechanism for facilitating communication between the transmitting end and the receiving end. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A Conference Manager (CM), comprising: a producer unit; consumer unit; and a data streaming unit; wherein the CM is configured to handle bi-directional communication between a transmitting end and a receiving end of a communication network the CM is associated with, comprising: at the transmitting end of the communication network: initiating a communication device and a visual sensor at the transmitting end when a conference session is initiated, by the producer unit; and initiating capturing of an audio signal and a video using the communication device and the visual sensor, by the producer unit; at the receiving end of the communication network: initiating reception of the audio signal and the video from the transmitting end, during the conference session, using the consumer unit; and enabling fast block-wise transfer of data transmitted between the transmitting end and the receiving end, other than the audio signal or the video, related to the conference session, to reduce latency if size of the data exceeds a Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) size of the communication network. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The communication manager as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication network executes the fast block-wise transfer by: sending all blocks except last block in a message frame corresponding to data being transmitted, as a non-confirmable request with a no-response option on a representational state transfer protocol over a datagram Transport protocol; sending the last block in the message frame corresponding to data being transmitted, as a confirmable request without the no-response option; fetching a response message corresponding to the blocks transmitted, after transmitting the last block; if the response message indicates loss of at least one of the blocks transmitted: identifying position of the at least one block in the message frame; and retransmitting the at least one block; and terminating the data transfer if the response message indicates that all blocks have been received. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The CM as claimed in claim 1, wherein the CM is used in a conferencing system to facilitate communication between a first party and at least one second party. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The conferencing system as claimed in claim 3, comprising: a first transceiver unit; a communication network; and a second transceiver unit; the first transceiver unit comprising: a communication device, wherein the communication device captures and transmits a first audio signal from location of the first transceiver unit to the second transceiver unit, and receives a second audio signal from the second transceiver unit; a visual sensor, wherein the visual sensor is configured to capture a video of at least one subject which is at the location of the first transceiver unit, further wherein the video is transmitted to the second transceiver unit; a computing device, comprising: the Conference Manager (CM), comprising: the producer unit, wherein the producer unit is configured to: initiate the communication device and the visual sensor when a conference session is initiated; and initiate the capturing of the first audio signal and the video; the consumer unit, wherein the consumer unit is configured to: initiate reception of at least one of the second audio signal and a video from the second transceiver unit, during the conference session; and a data streaming unit, wherein the data transfer unit enables fast block-wise transfer of any data over the communication network, other than audio signal or the video, related to the conference to reduce latency if size of data exceeds a Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) size of the communication network; wherein the CM is configured to coordinate capturing of the first audio signal and the video and transmission of the captured first audio signal and the video to the second transceiver unit; the second transceiver unit comprising: the Conference Manager (CM), comprising: the producer unit; and the consumer unit; wherein the CM is configured to collect and download the first audio signal and the video transmitted by the first transceiver unit. ### Claim 5 (depends on 3) The conferencing system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the communication network distributes load in transferring the audio signal and the video between a circuit switched network and a packet switched network.