Conference manager (CM) for low bandwidth video conferencing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11290293-B2
Application number	US-202016752472-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 24, 2020
Priority date	Jan 25, 2019
Publication date	Mar 29, 2022
Grant date	Mar 29, 2022

Abstract

Video conferencing involves transmission of video as well as audio over a network between people involved in the video conferencing, over a network. Typically, quality of conference sessions are affected by quality of network connection. If the bandwidth of the network is low, that that may cause call quality issues or call drops, which is not desirable especially in certain applications such as a surgery over video conferencing. Disclosed herein is a Conference Manager (CM) that can facilitate video conferencing over a low bandwidth network. The CM uses a producer unit and a consumer unit, for video capture and transmission, and a communication device for audio capture and transmission. The CM captures and combines audio and video data at a receiving end of the communication network. The CM also uses a fast block-wise data transfer mechanism for facilitating communication between the transmitting end and the receiving end.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A Conference Manager (CM), comprising:
a producer unit;
a consumer unit; and
a data streaming unit;
wherein the CM is configured to handle bi-directional communication between a transmitting end and a receiving end of a communication network the CM is associated with, comprising:
at the transmitting end of the communication network:
initiating a communication device and a visual sensor at the transmitting end when a conference session is initiated, by the producer unit;
initiating capturing of an audio signal and a video using the communication device and the visual sensor, by the producer unit;
transmitting the audio signal over a circuit switched connection and the video over a packet switched connection, wherein the video transmission over the packet switched connection is initiated only if audio communication over the circuit switched connection between the transmitting end and the receiving end is successful; and
facilitating only the audio communication between the transmitting end and the receiving end over the circuit switched connection, using the responsive to the request to perform the server-related processing task, terminating the data transfer if the response message indicates that all blocks have been received.

2. A conferencing system, comprising:
a first transceiver unit;
a communication network; and
a second transceiver unit;
the first transceiver unit comprising:
a communication device, wherein the communication device captures and transmits a first audio signal from location of the first transceiver unit to the second transceiver unit, and receives a second audio signal from the second transceiver unit, over a circuit switched connection;
a visual sensor, wherein the visual sensor is configured to capture a video of at least one subject which is at the location of the first transceiver unit, further wherein the video is transmitted to the second transceiver unit, over a packet switched connection;
a computing device, comprising:
a Conference Manager (CM), comprising:
a producer unit, wherein the producer unit is configured to:
 initiate the communication device and the visual sensor when a conference session is initiated;

communication device, if the packet switched connection between the transmitting end and the receiving end is unsuccessful;

at the receiving end of the communication network:
initiating reception of the audio signal and the video from the transmitting
end, during the conference session, using the consumer unit; and

enabling fast block-wise transfer of data transmitted between the transmitting end and the receiving end, other than the audio signal and the video, related to the conference session, if size of the data exceeds a Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) size of the communication network, wherein the fast block-wise transfer of data between the transmitting end and the receiving end is enabled by:
sending all blocks except last block in a message frame corresponding to data being transmitted, as a non-confirmable request with a no-response option on a representational state transfer protocol (STP) over a datagram Transport protocol (DTP);
sending the last block in the message frame corresponding to data being transmitted, as a confirmable request without the no-response option;
fetching a response message corresponding to the blocks transmitted, after transmitting the last block;
if the response message is of Continue for Lost Segments (CLS) type comprising a lost block indicator, then:
identifying position of at least one block in the message frame, wherein the lost block indicator includes a lost block bit-map; and
retransmitting the at least one block; and
 initiate capturing of the first audio signal and the video, wherein the video transmission over the packet switched connection is initiated only if audio communication over the circuit switched connection between the first transceiver unit and the second transceiver unit is successful; and
 facilitate only the audio communication between the first transceiver unit and the second transceiver unit over the circuit switched connection, using the communication device, if the packet switched connection between the first transceiver unit and the second transceiver unit is unsuccessful;
a consumer unit, wherein the consumer unit is configured to:
 initiate reception of at least one of the second audio signal and a video from the second transceiver unit, during the conference session, wherein reception of the video from the second transceiver unit is over the packet switched network; and
a data streaming unit, wherein the data streaming unit enables fast block-wise transfer of data over the communication network, other than audio signal and the video, related to the conference if size of data exceeds a Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) size of the communication network, wherein the fast block-wise transfer of data between the transmitting end and the receiving end is enabled by:
 sending all blocks except last block in a message frame corresponding to data being transmitted, as a non-confirmable request with a no-response option on a representational state transfer protocol (STP) over a datagram Transport protocol (DTP);
 sending the last block in the message frame corresponding to data being transmitted, as a confirmable request without the no-response option;
 fetching a response message corresponding to the blocks transmitted, after transmitting the last block;
 if the response message is of Continue for Lost Segments (CLS) type comprising a lost block indicator, then:
 identifying position of at least one block in the message frame, wherein the lost block indicator includes a lost block bit-map; and
 retransmitting the at least one block; and
 terminating the data transfer if the response message indicates that all blocks have been received;

wherein the CM is configured to coordinate capturing of the first audio signal and the video and transmission of the captured first audio signal and the video to the second transceiver unit; and

the second transceiver unit comprising:
the Conference Manager (CM), comprising:
the producer unit; and
the consumer unit;

wherein the CM is configured to collect and download the first audio signal and the video transmitted by the first transceiver unit.

Assignees

• Tata Consultancy Services Ltd
• Tata Consultancy Ltd Services

Inventors

• Bhattacharyya Abhijan
• Agrawal Suvrat
• Rath Hemant Kumar
• Pal Arpan

Classifications

• H04L12/1831

  Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status · CPC title

• H04L47/36

  by determining packet size, e.g. maximum transfer unit [MTU] · CPC title

• H04L12/1827 Primary

  Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation · CPC title

• H04M3/567

  Multimedia conference systems · CPC title

• H04L12/1868

  Measures taken after transmission, e.g. acknowledgments · CPC title