CIRCUIT SET-UP AND CACHING FOR MULTIMEDIA MULTIPOINT SERVERS

摘要

An MMS circuit set-up system includes a real time link manager (RTLM, 50) which is coupled to the audio video controller (AVC, 74) of the MMS. The AVC (74) receives data from MMS reservation system and sends commands to the RTLM (50) to set up connections for the conference. The RTLM (50) sends configuration messages to ATM switch es and/or other networking equipment using SNMP in order to set up a conference using SNMP via an ETHERNET connection to the slot controllers of the ATM switches and networking equipment which does no support SNMP. The ATM switches are controlled by the RTLM (50) using TCP/IP via an ETHERNET connection to the servers. The ATM circuits are preferably created by adding entries to an SPVC table in the ATM switch. According to one aspect of the invention, when ATM circuits are no longer needed, the SPVC table entries are not deleted, but the status of the circuit is marked "idle". This allows the circuit to be reused with minimal set-up time when i t is again needed.