System for enabling meshed conferences to be seamlessly promoted to full MCU based conferences

摘要

A method of conferencing participant video data and audio data includes switching from a mesh-based conference to an MCU-based conference upon the occurrence of a trigger event. The mesh-based conference includes transmitting separate video and audio data streams between endpoints, and the MCU-based conference includes transmitting single video/audio data from endpoints to an MCU and combined video/audio data streams from the MCU to the endpoints.

主权项

1. A method of conferencing participant video data and audio data among a plurality of endpoints, the method comprising: transmitting from a first endpoint to at least a second endpoint in a mesh-based conference a first video data stream comprising first participant video data and a first audio data stream comprising first participant audio data; receiving at the first endpoint in the mesh-based conference at least a second video data stream comprising second participant video data transmitted by the second endpoint and at least a second audio data stream comprising second participant audio data transmitted by the second endpoint; and switching, upon the occurrence of a trigger event, from the mesh-based conference to an MCU-based conference comprising transmitting from the first endpoint to an MCU a single video/audio data stream comprising first participant video data and first participant audio data, and receiving at the first endpoint from the MCU a combined single video/audio data stream comprising second participant video data and second participant audio data; wherein the trigger event comprises a conferencing service event associated with an MCU conferencing service serving the conference; wherein the conferencing service event comprises a dynamically based threshold number of MCU conferences and participants being served by the MCU conferencing service, and wherein the threshold number is configured to maximize the number of mesh-based conferences or mesh-based conference participants conferencing without reduced or suppressed video data as to not exceed a finite capacity of the MCU.