DYNAMIC QUALITY ADAPTATION USING PERSONAL QUALITY PROFILES AND COMPOSITE PERFORMANCE METRIC

摘要

A method of dynamically adjusting quality of video communication among a plurality of users over a computer network, the method comprising the steps of: i) establishing a personal quality profile for each user, each personal quality profile comprising a plurality of levels of varying communication quality according to the user's capabilities and preferences, ranging incrementally between the minimum acceptable quality and the highest desired quality; ii) monitoring parameters relating to the quality of communications to each user; iii) calculating a composite performance metric from the monitored parameters; iv) adjusting the quality of video communications to users by raising the communication quality to each user by one level within that user's personal quality profile if the composite performance metric remains below a threshold defining the limit of available resources, and lowering the communication quality to each user by one level within that user's personal quality profile if the composite performance metric exceeds said threshold. A computer program or other article implementing this method.