METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR NETWORK-BASED COLLABORATION

摘要

A method and system for establishing a network-based collaboration is described. The method involves the provision of a server-terminal as a data source for the collaboration session, a plurality of client-terminals to allow a user access for participating in the collaboration session and one or more application gateways, the application gateways being configured to relay data between network components during the collaboration session. Both the server-terminal and the client-terminals are allocated an application gateway to which it transmits/and receives data during the collaboration session, the allocation of the application gateways being determined by the location of the server-terminal and client terminals within the network. Also described is a method of data path optimisation for the application gateways employed within the network-based collaboration. A particular application of the present invention is found within the field of Wide Area Network (WAN)-based collaborations.