MULTIPOINT-TO-MULTIPOINT MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCING SYSTEM INCORPORATING A DISTRIBUTED ENTITY ENVIRONMENT AND A UNIQUE METHOD OF FLOOR CONTROL

摘要

A PLURALITY OF CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS (20, 21) COUPLED TO A LAN(L1) HAVE THE ABILITY TO MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCE WITH A PLURALITY OF CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS (22, 23) COUPLED TO A REMOTE LAN (L2) WHEREIN THE TWO LANs (27, 31) ARE COUPLED TO EACH OTHER BY A WAN(34). COMMUNICATION OVER THE WAN(34) IS ACCOMPLISHED VIA THE IP PROTOCOL AND EACH LAN (27, 31) IS PROVIDED WITH A CONFERENCE SERVER (24, 25). EACH PARTICIPANT COMPUTER IS PROVIDED WITH AN AUDIO CODEC (220), A VIDEO CODEC (210), AND DOCUMENT CONTROL (230) SUCH THAT PROCESSING OR AUDIO, VIDEO, AND OTHER DATA IS ACCOMPLISHED IN A PARALLEL MANNER.