System and method for managing conferencing in a distributed communication network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016088028-A1
Application number	US-201514964266-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 9, 2015
Priority date	Jul 7, 2014
Publication date	Mar 24, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods for a conferencing system. Responsive to a new conference request received at a conference orchestration service, participants of the conference and participant regions for each determined participant are determined. A mixer topology is generated that specifies an assignment of each determined participant to at least one input channel of a plurality of mixers. A mixer state manager generates the mixer topology based on the determined participant regions and at least one regional association of a mixer. Media of each determined participant is routed to the assigned at least one input channel according to the generated mixer topology by using the conference orchestration service. The mixer state manager generates the topology responsive to a request provided by the conference state manager. The conference orchestration service receives the generated mixer topology from the mixer state manager via the conference state manager.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
controlling a conferencing system to determine participants of a conference responsive to a request for a new conference; controlling a conference state manager of the conferencing system to provide an application layer request to a mixer state manager of the conferencing system; responsive to the application layer request provided by the conference state manager, controlling the mixer state manager to provide a conference orchestration service of the conferencing system with a mixer topology that specifies an assignment of each determined participant to at least one input channel of a plurality of mixers of the conferencing system; and controlling the conference orchestration service to route media of each determined participant to the assigned at least one input channel according to the generated mixer topology.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the mixer state manager provides the conference orchestration service with the mixer topology via the conference state manager.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the conferencing system is a conferencing system of a communication platform, and the conference orchestration service receives the request for the new conference from a call router of the communication platform via a signaling protocol communication interface of the conference orchestration service.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein participants include at least one of:
a participant transferred from an established communication session into the conference; a participant that establishes a communication session with an endpoint that is mapped to the conference; and a participant specified by an API request received by an application layer interface of the conferencing system.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein media of the conference is bridged between mixers of the plurality of mixers of the conferencing system.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining participants of the conference comprises determining participant regions of the determined participants.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the conferencing system determines a participant region of a participant based on at least one of an area code and a country code of an endpoint of the participant.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein assigning each determined participant to at least one input channel comprises: assigning each determined participant to at least one input channel based on a participant region determined for the participant.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the conference state manager is constructed to maintain conference state of the conference, and to notify the conference orchestration service of conference state changes via an application layer communication interface.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising transitioning the mixer topology according to new conditions.

11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the mixer state manager manages mixer state information for each mixer, and wherein the mixer state information specifies a regional association of at least one mixer of the set of distributed mixers.

12 . The method of claim 12 , wherein for each mixer managed by the mixer state manager, the mixer state information indicates a state for each input channel of the mixer, and wherein the mixer state manager assigns each determined participant to at least one free input channel of the plurality of mixers, each free input channel being identified by the mixer state information.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein determining participants of the conference comprises: identifying participants specified in at least one of an application layer request and an application layer response received via an application layer interface.

14 . The method of claim 11 , wherein determining participants of the conference comprises: identifying participants specified in at least one conference request received via a signaling protocol communication interface of the conference orchestration service.

15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the mixer state manager assigns each determined participant to at least one input channel based on respective participant priority values.

16 . The method of claim 11 , wherein responsive to an application layer request provided by the conference orchestration service, the conference state manger generates conference state of the conference based on information of the application layer request, and wherein the generated conference state includes the determined participants and the determined participant regions of the participants for the conference.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the conference state is managed by the conference state manager, wherein the conference state manger provides the conference state to the mixer state manager via an application layer request provided by the conference state manager, and wherein the mixer state manager generates the mixer topology by using the conference state.

18 . The method of claim 17 ,
wherein the mixer state manager determines the participant regions for each determined participant by using the conference state provided by the conference state manager, wherein the mixer state manager determines regions for each mixer by using the mixer state managed by the mixer state manager, and wherein, for at least one determined participant,
the mixer state manager determines a mixer located in a region that matches the participant region of the determined participant; and
assigns the determined participant to an input channel of the mixer located in the matching region.

Assignees

• Twilio Inc

Inventors

• Fahlgren Christer
• Acosta Amador Nico

Classifications

• H04L45/02

  Topology update or discovery · CPC title

• H04L67/52

  specially adapted for the location of the user terminal · CPC title

• H04L12/1818 Primary

  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

• H04L65/1069 Primary

  Session establishment or de-establishment · CPC title