APPROACH FOR TRANSFERRING FUNCTIONS BETWEEN PARTICIPANTS IN A COMMUNICATIONS ARRANGEMENT

摘要

A novel approach for transferring management functions between participants in a communications arrangement generally involves the use of an associate master participant that assumes responsibilities for functions assigned to the master participant if the master participant can no longer perform the functions. A participant is designated as the master participant and is responsible for performing the functions. Another participant is designated as an associate master participant and assumes the role of master participant if any of a set of handoff criteria, which may vary depending on a particular application's requirements, are satisfied. After the associate master participant assumes the role of master participant, a new associate master participant may be designated. The approach reduces the amount of time required both to determine that the master participant can no longer perform the functions and to assign responsibility for performing the functions to another participant once that determination is made.