ANNOUNCED SESSION CONTROL

摘要

The invention provides a method and system for managing media stream connections in a media session, for example a multimedia conference, that is to take place over multicast capable links provided in networks configured for Internet Protocol operation, that is to say, the communications network known as the MBone (Internet Protocol Multicast Backbone). The method comprises the steps of: receiving a session description of a media session by way of a session announcement over a network; parsing the session description to determine appropriate media application programs for processing the or each media stream of the session description (600); selecting one or more media streams identified in the session description (630); and, connecting the or each selected media stream to one or more respective media application program or programs (660) utilising a session control (500) configured for managing media stream connections for the or each media application program.