Universal conference control manager

Details Universal conference control manager Universal conference control manager

1998-04-22

2001-08-28

Matar, Ahmad (Department: 2642)

Telephonic communications

Special services

Conferencing

C379S272000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06282278

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for automatically establishing an audio conference call using one of a number of conference call service providers.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
The audio conferencing services are very important part of today's business world. People who are separated by distance are brought together for meetings by these services. The cost of using an audio conference is much less than the cost of bringing people together in one room. People save time and money by participating in meetings from their homes and offices.
There are many commercial conferencing services available in the market. Most of these services are traditionally operated assisted. In other words, the participants dial in the conferencing center and talked to an operator. The primary function of the operator is to verify that the participant is authorized to join in by checking his/her password. After the verifications, the operator connects the line of the incoming call to the audio bridge. The recent technological developments in the area of computer telephony made it possible to automate conference setup and join processes. The participant may now dial the conferencing centers and punch in their pass words or account information from their phones and join to the conference without requiring operator intervention. AT&T, MCI, Sprint, ATS are some of the companies that have automated audio conference services.
With the increasing popularity of World Wide Web (WWW), some audio conference service provider accept requests to start up conferences from a Web browser. MCI, Sprint have Web sites for audio conference services. The audio bridges of these services providers are c connected to the internet and participants can invoke conference applications from their Web browsers. The status of each call can also be displayed on the browser page.
In all these services, automated or operator assisted, the participants have to chose a service provider. As a result of this, when he conference is established the participants audio signals are mixed in one single audio bridge regardless of their location. As an example, if the audio bridge is in Colorado, all the participants are connected to the bridge physically located in Colorado. This may increase the cost of the service, because of the disperse locations of the conference participants. If most participants are in New York area for example, a service provider in that area may serve better. Moreover, the participants are limited by the capacity of the bridge that they are connected to. In short, there exist no resource broker system for optimal selection of a conferencing platform.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
With the help of internet technologies, a multitude of audio conference platforms can be connected to and controlled form a single point. The internet technologies make it possible to interconnect all the computers, including the computers running audio bridge control software. If all these conferencing platforms are interconnected and controlled from a single point, then available resources may be utilized more effectively. This is similar to a resource broker system tailored for audio conference resources. This audio conference resource broker system gathers, stores and processes the information about the audio conference resources such as, capacity and availability, the locations and preferences of the service requesters or users, and the locations of the audio conference service providers. This information is then used to make an optimal selection of a conference service provider.
The users of this system register their preferences and requests to this Resource Broker system over a data connection, such as internet by using their Web browsers. The Audio Service Providers, on the other hand, register their availability, pricing policies, capabilities, etc. to the same Resource Broker System by using a similar networking connection. The Resource Broker System, then finds the best possible means of connecting the users when the time comes for audio conferencing.


REFERENCES:
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patent: 5619555 (1997-04-01), Fenton et al.
patent: 5758281 (1998-05-01), Emery et al.
patent: 5916302 (1999-06-01), Dunn et al.
patent: 5995608 (1999-11-01), Detampel, Jr. et al.

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