US 4,710,917 AGranted

Video conferencing network

AssigneeDatapoint Corporation

InventorsE. Neal Tompkins, Thomas C. Arends, Michael W. Barry

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Abstract

A video conferencing network includes remote video terminals (10) interconnected to a switching network (66) through coaxial cables (16). The switching network (66) is operable to provide an audio and video data path between two or more video terminals (10). The switching network (66) operates as both an audio/video crosspoint switch and also as a network controller. In the network control mode, the switching network (66) operates in both a master mode for maintaining data communication with all of the video terminals (10) and also in a slave mode for maintaining status of devices attached to the switching network (66). In the master mode, the switching network (66) receives requests from each of the video terminals (10) and services these requests to determine available data paths for interconnection with other video terminals. In the slave mode, the switch (66) is in data communication with all of the video terminals (10) to determine the status thereof which is stored in a slave status table. This information in the status table is transferred to a separate network table that is maintained in the master mode for network purposes.

Claims65

Dependent claims

A video conferencing network, comprising:

a plurality of video terminals each having a unique address for transmitting and receiving audio, video and data;
switching means for receiving audio and video information at one of a plurality of audio/video ports and selectively transmitting said received audio and video information to one or more of the remaining of said audio/video ports;
data manager means for receiving data at one of a plurality of data ports, determining which of the remaining of said data ports the received data is to be transmitted to in accordance with predetermined routing information and transmitting the received data to the determined one of said data ports;
communication link means disposed between each of said video terminals and a select one of said audio/video ports on said switching means and a select on of said data ports on said data manager means;
slave means for controlling the configuration of said switching means in response to receiving a reconfiguration signal from said data manager means, said slave means in data communication with a select one of said data ports on said data manager means;
network master means for cotnrolling the network, said network master means receiving data from said data manager means and transmitting data thereto, said network master means communicating with said video terminals and said slave means, said network master means generating said reconfiguration signal for transmission to said slave means through said data manager means to reconfigure said switching means;
and
data link means for interfacing between said network master means and one of said data ports on said data manager means.

5 more elements

A video conferencing network, comprising:

a plurality of remotely disposed video terminals for transitting and receiving audio, video and data and each attached to one of a plurality of network ports, each of said network ports for receiving and transmitting audio, video and data;
switch means for receiving audio and video from each of said network ports and interconnecting the received audio and video for transmission to select ones of said network ports in accordance with a predetermined interconnect pattern;
data manager means for receiving data from each of said network ports, identifying the destination of the received data, and routing the received data to the one of said network ports corresponding to the identified destination;
slave means attached to one of said network ports for reconfiguring said switch means in accordance with said predetermined interconnect pattern, said slave means controlled by data received from said data manager means;
network master means attached to one of said network ports for controlling the operation of the network, said network master means operable to transmit data to and receive data from said data manager means to establish communication with said video terminals and said slave means, said network master means generating said predetermined interconnect pattern for transmission to said slave means through said data manager means;
and
communication link means for interfacing said switch means and said data manager means with said network ports.

4 more elements

A method for effecting a video conference between remote network ports, comprising:

disposing a video terminal at each of the remote points, each of the video terminals generating output audio and video and receiving input audio and video information, each of the video terminals transmitting receiving data;
interconnecting the audio and video inputs and outputs of select ones of the video terminals in accordance with a predetermined interconnect pattern;
receiving data from the network ports at a central routing device, identifying destination of the data and routing the data to the corresponding destination;
controlling the interconnection of video terminals from one of the ports by establishing data communication therewith, data generated at the controlling point routed through the central routing device to the destination port and data received from the routing device having the controlling port as its destination, the predetermined interconnect pattern generated at the controlling device;
and
controlling the interconnection of the audio and video inputs and outputs of the select ones of the video terminals at a slave port by receiving the interconnect pattern at this slave port from the controlling port through the routing device.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.