Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer conferencing
Reexamination Certificate
1997-12-08
2001-01-09
Rinehart, Mark H. (Department: 2756)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer conferencing
C370S261000, C709S227000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06173314
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an application sharing system for exchanging and sharing information among a plurality of terminal apparatuses in a conferencing system utilizing information processing apparatuses including a computer and communication equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Application sharing systems according to the prior art include systems which enable a plurality of terminals to share the result and process of the execution of an application program by multicast delivery of information not dependent on any application program to the same application program in response to an input from any terminal, disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei-6-83785 or a paper by ABE et al. entitled “Distributed Cooperative Control for Sharing Applications Based on the MERMAID Multiparty and Multimedia Desktop Conferencing System” published in NEC Corporation, NEC RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT, Vol. 34, No., pp. 122-131, January 1993.
The term “application sharing” means the sharing of the result of processing of multicast operation of a single application by a plurality of users from their respective terminals, and the term “application program”, collaborating application programs operating on different terminals as if they were a single application program and realizing application sharing by carrying out processing while exchanging information among one another.
FIG. 11
is a block diagram illustrating the overall configuration of the system, out of the techniques according to the prior art referred to above, disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei-6-83785. Referring to
FIG. 11
, this system is provided with a plurality of terminal systems
11
,
12
and
13
and a terminal system
10
including one multicast communication control means
120
. Since the terminal systems
11
,
12
and
13
have the same configuration, only the terminal system
11
will be described below as representative of the plurality of systems.
The terminal system
11
has execution control means for an application program
531
consisting of event providing means
541
, event analyzing means
551
, message communicating means
571
and procedure executing means
561
. The event providing means
541
enters event information into the event analyzing means
551
, which analyzes the entered event, prepares a message for requesting the execution of a processing procedure for the application program, adds to or includes in the message information required for sharing action, and enters the message into the message communicating means
571
, which in turn transmits the message to the multicast communication control means
120
via a line
21
.
The multicast communication control means
120
, utilizing the information added to or included in the received message, transmits this message to message communicating means of the plurality of terminal systems
12
and
13
; the message communicating means
572
and
573
in the terminal systems
12
and
13
extract from the messages received from the multicast control means
120
via lines
22
and
23
, respectively, the information (necessary information for sharing action) added to or included in the messages, enter the information into procedure executing means
562
and
563
of the application programs
532
and
533
, respectively; and the procedure executing means
562
and
563
perform processing using the respectively entered messages; and the application programs on the plurality of terminal systems
11
,
12
and
13
process event information generated on the respective terminal systems, and obtain the same result of execution. In this manner, an application program is shared by the plurality of terminal systems
11
,
12
and
13
on a real time basis.
However, the above-described system according to the prior art involves the problem that, where the same information is subjected to multicast delivery from one application to a plurality of other applications, the multicast communication control means is used and, since the multicast communication control means use consecutive multicast communication, i.e. information being individually delivered to each application, the cost of multicast communication per item of information increases in proportion to the number of terminals.
The prior art system described above also involves the problem of complexity of processing at the time of starting or ending the system because the multicast communication control means is independent of other programs and operates by itself.
Furthermore, the conventional system described above involves the problem that the terminals can participate in only a specific conferencing system on account of the lack of means to permit participation in any desired one out of a plurality of conferencing systems.
It also has the problem of requiring another terminal (for instance the terminal
10
provided with the multicast communication control means
120
in
FIG. 11
) separately from the terminals of users participating in the conference.
Moreover, the prior art system involves the problem that application sharing is impossible among terminals not connected to the same communication network because it presupposes the connection of any terminal to the same communication network as other terminals.
Therefore, the object of the present invention, attempted in view of the above-described circumstances, is to provide an application sharing system which makes it possible to use a communication path at a favorable transfer efficiency by differentiated use of multicast communication and unicast communication, to compose a conferencing system of user terminals alone by providing each terminal with a function to manage a conferencing group and, where there are a plurality of communication paths, to choose the optimal path.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention, each of a plurality of terminals is provided with a multicast communicating section for multicast transmission of information from one of the terminals to the rest of the plurality of terminals by using the multicast delivery function of a network; a point-to-point communicating section for transmitting information to the plurality of terminals by using a group communicating section for performing consecutive multicast delivery to each terminal; and two communicating sections, wherein the cost of multicast delivery of information is reduced by making one of these communicating sections selectable.
Further according to the invention, automation of the starting and ending of the system and of the processing of holding of, participating in, retiring from and adjourning of a conference can be realized by using a configuration in which all the constituent elements and means included in each terminal are interconnected.
The invention also makes possible participation in a plurality of conferencing systems by having conferencing group information include the type of conferencing system.
The invention further makes possible structuring of a system without requiring any additional apparatus other than users' terminals by having each terminal include an intra-group control section for managing a conferencing group and distributing conferencing group information so as to be managed by each terminal.
The invention also enables, where a conferencing group is to be formed of terminals each having a plurality of communication paths, the conferencing group, when a conference is to be held, to choose the most suitable communication path for it by enabling the participating terminals to search communication paths available to them and to find the intended conferencing group.
More specifically, according to the invention, there is provided an application sharing system composed of a plurality of terminals connected via a network, each of said plurality of terminals comprising:
a group information managing section for entering, at the instruction of a user information for convening or participating in a conferencing group;
a program s
Kurashima Akihisa
Tagashira Shigeru
Foley & Lardner
NEC Corporation
Rinehart Mark H.
Thompson Marc D.
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