Host facility assignment for a conferencing session

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10075499-B2
Application number	US-201615057928-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 1, 2016
Priority date	Mar 1, 2016
Publication date	Sep 11, 2018
Grant date	Sep 11, 2018

Abstract

Techniques for host facility assignment for a conferencing session are described. Generally, a conferencing session refers to an exchange of communication media between communication endpoints. Accordingly to various embodiments, multiple different host facilities are available for hosting a conferencing session. Further to techniques described herein, a host facility from the different available host facilities is selected to perform hosting duties for the conferencing session. In at least some implementations, a host facility that is estimated to provide a highest session quality for the conferencing session is selected to host the conferencing session.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more computer-readable storage devices including instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, cause the system perform operations including:
ascertaining that a group of endpoint devices are associated with participants in a conferencing session;
identifying host facilities that are available to host the conferencing session;
partitioning the group of endpoint devices into different endpoint clusters that are each assigned to a different host facility of the available host facilities, said partitioning based on determining, for each endpoint device of the group of endpoint devices, which host facility of the available host facilities is estimated to provide each endpoint device with a highest media quality for a respective media flow;
accessing a weighting value for each endpoint cluster of the different endpoint clusters based on one or more attributes of endpoint devices partitioned into each respective endpoint cluster of the different endpoint clusters; and
selecting a host facility from the available host facilities to host the conferencing session based on a weighting value of an endpoint cluster assigned to the selected host facility.

2. A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the conferencing session is initiated by an initiator endpoint device, and wherein one or more of the host facilities that are available to host the conferencing session are located at different geographical locations than the initiator endpoint device.

3. A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said partitioning comprises assigning a particular endpoint device to a particular endpoint cluster based on determining that a host facility associated with the particular endpoint cluster is estimated to provide the particular endpoint device with a highest media quality from among the available host facilities for the conferencing session.

4. A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said partitioning comprises assigning a particular endpoint device to a particular endpoint cluster based on determining that a host facility associated with the particular endpoint cluster is estimated to provide the particular endpoint device with a lowest average packet delay from among the available host facilities for the conferencing session.

5. A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said assigning a weighting value to a particular endpoint cluster is based on one or more weighting values for one or more endpoint devices assigned to the particular endpoint cluster.

6. A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said assigning a weighting value to a particular endpoint cluster is based on one or more weighting values for one or more endpoint devices assigned to the particular endpoint cluster, and wherein the one or more weighting values for the one or more endpoint devices are assigned based on one or more attributes of the one or more endpoint devices.

7. A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said assigning a weighting value to a particular endpoint cluster is based on one or more weighting values for one or more endpoint devices assigned to the particular endpoint cluster, and wherein the one or more weighting values for the one or more endpoint devices are assigned based on one or more of a user ranking or a user role for a user of the one or more endpoint devices.

8. A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the endpoint cluster assigned to the selected host facility has the highest average weighting value of the different endpoint clusters.

9. A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the conferencing session is initiated by an initiator endpoint device associated with a particular host facility, and wherein the selected host facility is different than the particular host facility.

10. A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the operations further include:
determining while the conferencing session hosted by the selected host facility is in progress that a trigger event occurs;
calculating a quality centroid for the conferencing session in response to the trigger event; and
performing a host facility reassignment for the conferencing session based on which host facility of the available host facilities is closest to the quality centroid.

11. A computer-implemented method comprising:
identifying host facilities that are available to host a conferencing session;
partitioning, by a hardware data processing system, a group of endpoint devices associated with participants in the conferencing session into different endpoint clusters that are each assigned to a different host facility of the available host facilities, said partitioning based on a quality metric for each endpoint device of the group of endpoint devices relative to each host facility of the available host facilities;
accessing, by the hardware data processing system, a weighting value for each endpoint cluster of the different endpoint clusters based on one or more attributes of endpoint devices of the group of endpoint devices partitioned into each endpoint cluster of the different endpoint clusters; and
selecting, by the hardware data processing system, a host facility from the available host facilities to host the conferencing session based on a weighting value of an endpoint cluster assigned to the selected host facility.

12. A method as described in claim 11 , wherein the conferencing session is initiated by an initiator endpoint device associated with a particular host facility, the selected host facility is different than the particular host facility, and wherein the method further comprises causing the selected host facility to host the conferencing session instead of the particular host facility.

13. A method as described in claim 11 , wherein the conferencing session is scheduled by an initiator endpoint device associated with a particular host facility, the selected host facility is different than the particular host facility, and wherein the method further comprises causing the selected host facility to initiate hosting of the conferencing session.

14. A method as described in claim 11 , wherein the conferencing session is scheduled by an initiator endpoint device associated with a particular host facility, the selected host facility is different than the particular host facility, and wherein the method further comprises causing a handover of hosting of the conferencing session from the particular host facility to the selected host facility.

15. A method as described in claim 11 , further comprising:
determining while the conferencing session hosted by the selected host facility is in progress that a trigger event occurs;
calculating a quality centroid for the conferencing session in response to the trigger event; and
performing a host facility reassignment for the conferencing session based on which host facility of the available host facilities is closest to the quality centroid.

16. A method as described in claim 11 , wherein the quality metric for a particular endpoint device of the group of endpoint devices comprises session quality of one or more historic conferencing sessions hosted by a particular host facility for the particular endpoint device.

17. A method as described in claim 11 , wherein the quality metric for a particular endpoint device of the group of endpoint devices comprises an estimation of a media quality of a media flow provided by a particular host facility for the particular endpoint device.

18. A method as described in claim 11 , wherein the one or more attributes u

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Hassan Amer Aref
• Arora Sonu
• Aftab Omar
• Clark Bradford R
• Levin Danny

Classifications

• H04L12/1827 Primary

  Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation · CPC title

• H04L67/1051

  Group master selection mechanisms · CPC title

• H04L12/1822

  Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission · CPC title

• H04L12/1818

  Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties · CPC title

• H04L65/403

  Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences (data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15) · CPC title