DISTRIBUTED NETWORK SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE FOR COLLABORATIVE COMPUTING

摘要

A distributed collaborative computer system (300) is provided that comprises a plurality of server computers (335, 370, 380n, 390n) interconnected via a high-speed link. Client computers (320) can connect to any available server computer and start or join a conference (330) hosted on either the server computer to which the client computer (320) is connected or any other server (335, 370, 380n, 390n) in the system. The present invention is easily scalable to support an arbitrary number of participants to a conference by merely adding the appropriate number of server computers (335, 370, 380n, 390n) to the system by replicating the conference information on more than one server computer, if a server hosting or participating in a conference malfunctions, the failure is detected by other server computers (335, 370, 380n, 390n) and the client computer (320) is able to reconnect to the conference through a new server computer.