US 8,149,740 B2Granted

Method and apparatus for distributed conferences

AssigneeInterwise Ltd.

InventorsHaim Karniely, Joseph Gray

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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.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A method for distributing information in a hierarchical communication network during an event, the method comprising:

receiving a first information stream from a source by a parent first destination site comprising a first server connected to a first client device and connected to the source by a first connection;
when at least one descendent second destination site comprising a second server connected to a second client device is connected to the parent first destination site in a second connection, transmitting a second information stream from the parent first destination site to the at least one descendent second destination site,
wherein the first information stream is transmitted once between the source and the parent first destination site and the second information stream is transmitted once between the parent first destination site and at least one descendent second destination site,
wherein the first client device connected to the first server of the parent first destination site is not the source and is connected only to the first server of the parent first destination site, and
wherein the second client device connected to the second server of the descendant second destination site is connected only to the second server of the descendant second destination site.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 11/789,835Filed 25 Apr 2007
Published: US 2008/0267094 A130 Oct 2008
Granted: 3 Apr 2012
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification4 codes

H04L 12/1827
For computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms: network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
H04L 12/1886
For broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast: with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
H04L 12/66
Data switching networks: arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
H04L
Digital communication

Family

US 2008/0267094 A1Pre-grant publication · published 30 Oct 2008
US 8,149,740 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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