Distributing work in a distributed video conferencing system by using a consistent hash function

摘要

The present invention includes a method and a system providing balancing of work items required to be completed as a whole over the available computing systems in a video conference node cluster, in addition to providing sufficient redundancy among conference nodes by means of consistent hash functions.;Consistent hashing is based on mapping each object or work item to a point on a virtual circle. The system maps each available machine or node to many pseudo-randomly distributed points on the same circle.;The present invention can be used for example in monitoring calendar servers for scheduled video conferences and providing a user interface icon to endpoints participating in a scheduled video conference through which the endpoints enter the video conference, or monitoring dial-ins from an endpoint participating in a scheduled video conference and dialing out to the other endpoints participating in the scheduled video conference.