WO2001006745A1 - Système de transmission de messages, y compris de données audio, sur un réseau d'ordinateurs en temps réel. - Google Patents
Système de transmission de messages, y compris de données audio, sur un réseau d'ordinateurs en temps réel. Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- WO2001006745A1 WO2001006745A1 PCT/GB2000/002749 GB0002749W WO0106745A1 WO 2001006745 A1 WO2001006745 A1 WO 2001006745A1 GB 0002749 W GB0002749 W GB 0002749W WO 0106745 A1 WO0106745 A1 WO 0106745A1
- Authority
- WO
- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- data
- message
- intercom
- broadcast
- messages
- Prior art date
Links
Classifications
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
- H04L12/00—Data switching networks
- H04L12/02—Details
- H04L12/16—Arrangements for providing special services to substations
- H04L12/18—Arrangements for providing special services to substations for broadcast or conference, e.g. multicast
- H04L12/1813—Arrangements for providing special services to substations for broadcast or conference, e.g. multicast for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms
- H04L12/1831—Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/56—Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities
- H04M3/567—Multimedia conference systems
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M7/00—Arrangements for interconnection between switching centres
- H04M7/006—Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M2203/00—Aspects of automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M2203/45—Aspects of automatic or semi-automatic exchanges related to voicemail messaging
- H04M2203/4527—Voicemail attached to other kind of message
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/42221—Conversation recording systems
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/50—Centralised arrangements for answering calls; Centralised arrangements for recording messages for absent or busy subscribers ; Centralised arrangements for recording messages
- H04M3/53—Centralised arrangements for recording incoming messages, i.e. mailbox systems
- H04M3/5307—Centralised arrangements for recording incoming messages, i.e. mailbox systems for recording messages comprising any combination of audio and non-audio components
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/50—Centralised arrangements for answering calls; Centralised arrangements for recording messages for absent or busy subscribers ; Centralised arrangements for recording messages
- H04M3/53—Centralised arrangements for recording incoming messages, i.e. mailbox systems
- H04M3/533—Voice mail systems
- H04M3/53366—Message disposing or creating aspects
- H04M3/53375—Message broadcasting
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M9/00—Arrangements for interconnection not involving centralised switching
Definitions
- This invention relates to a system for communicating messages, including audio and/or video or other data, over a network of computers in real time, the data including broadcast data streams for delivery to multiple computers, and point-to-point intercom data streams for delivery between a plurality of individual comput ers
- voice and other audio program content including Internet radio, internet telephony, voice-mail, and unified messaging.
- An object of the present invention is to provide an integrated solution to messaging which makes audit and recovery of a given message more efficient.
- EtherPhoneTM A known method of integrating a personal computer network and a internal telephone system using a packet switching protocol has been developed and is known as the EtherPhoneTM. This system is described in passing in US 5,862,134, which also describes a system which allows calls to persons not connected to the network. These systems have the drawback that archiving of messages and providing a reliable audit trail for such messages is difficult using such systems. Most recording facilities assume point to point communications and are not designed to manage point to point and point to multi point communications with a seamless audit trail.
- a system for communicating messages including audio and/or video or other data, over a network of computers in real time as specified in claim 1.
- This provides an integrated solution to messaging which makes audit and recovery of a given message more efficient in terms of bandwidth usage.
- Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a known telephone system
- Figure 2 shows a block diagram of a client-server network
- Figure 3 shows a system according to the present invention.
- FIG. 1 When voice messages are recorded using a normal telephone exchange, an arrangement shown in Figure 1 may be employed, in which a voice recorder (1) capable of recording multiple simultaneous voice messages is connected directly to the central exchange (2), to which is also connected a plurality of telephones (3).
- a voice recorder (1) capable of recording multiple simultaneous voice messages is connected directly to the central exchange (2), to which is also connected a plurality of telephones (3).
- telephone calls play less of a role.
- Intercom - typically point to point full duplex calls over ambient speakers, though typically the information is half duplex or question and answer - e.g. "What is the Dollar Franc rate?" or "Fred your visitor is in reception?"
- Hoot and Holler - multipoint to multipoint conference where again information is being disseminated and multiple people within a company will wish to communication to a large number of listeners around the world on the same subject. This is typically product related.
- a central sever In order to implement efficient communications a central sever is used with Broadcasts and Hoots to combine any incoming voice and data streams and routes the combined streams to intended recipients. However, for intercom calls the most direct route is used to minimise delay and therefore the central servers are not used. Constructing a system which can implement recording of one or more hoots with simultaneous intercom capability between recipients is complex, and being able to keep track of all the voice messages to provide an audit trail (including intercom conversations) is problematic. In a conventional telephone exchange it is straightforward to keep track of all voice messages by recording all the active lines because they are all accessible in a single location.
- One aspect of the present invention is to provide such an auditable voice messaging and message storage functionality in an otherwise conventional networked computer environment where the messages are not all accessible from a single point.
- An example of a network topology allowing this functionality is shown in Figure 2.
- This figure shows a network backbone (5), such as for example an Ethernet cable, coupled to a plurality of workstation computers (6) and a server (7).
- This is a typical example of a client-server architecture.
- the server (7) control the data traffic in an analogous way to the central exchange (2) shown in Figure 1, with the workstation computers (6) acting in an analogous way to the telephones (3) in Figure 1.
- each "push to talk" voice data stream (and any video or other data) is routed from the workstation to the server, which then broadcasts a combined hoot voice stream to predefined workstations.
- the server can conveniently store the combined stream for later replay.
- individual workstation computers could, in principle, set up point-to-point intercom sessions with each other, this is not consistent with an integrated central database of users which tracks call usage, security permissions, etc.
- the communication system has a first server function that keeps track of permissions and usage and a second server function that combines voice streams or other data streams for broadcast and which provides storage means for storing the same data streams.
- the system also comprises a plurality of workstation computers each of which exchanges data on its intercom usage with the first server function, but which sends the intercom voice stream directly to the other workstation computer.
- Each workstation computer includes data storage means for storing the intercom voice stream for that particular workstation, such that the first server function is both able to keep track of intercom usage and subsequently to arrange for playback at any authorised point of any intercom message.
- the first and second server functions may be combined in a single server, or may be provided by separate servers.
- FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the invention in which both server functions are combined in a single server (10).
- This server has a part (11) which is allocated to store broadcast messages including audio data such as voice.
- the workstations (12) each have a data store (14) for storing intercom messages including audio data such as voice. It is within the scope of the present invention for each workstation to store any combination of its own outgoing and incoming intercom data streams. To reduce storage requirements, the two data streams may be combined, for example by summing the two channels and storing this summed data, or by using other forms of compression appropriate for the type of data.
- the system implements broadcasts and hoots as follows.
- a person at a workstation computer (12) authorised to send such a message provides data to a routing server (10), usually in the form of data packets. These packets are combined into a single audio data stream at the server, which then sends the data stream out to a given subset of the workstations as a broadcast message, and stores this data in part 11. The broadcast message is then replayed by all the workstations participating in that particular hoot.
- the workstation If one of the workstations wants to replay an earlier part of the broadcast or hoot, or an earlier broadcast or hoot, the workstation requests the data from the server, which retrieves the data from its store 11 and sends the data to the workstation making the request.
- replays of this kind are relatively uncommon, so that this approach is much more efficient than storing the original broadcast message at each participating workstation computer. It also provides a solution to the problem of what to do about workstations that were unable to receive the original broadcast.
- the system implements an intercom message as follows.
- An intercom link between two workstations is initiated by the client requesting the address of a recipient from the server, which logs which workstations are involved, when the link is established, and either the duration of the link or the time the link finishes.
- the subsequent real time data streams are sent directly from one workstation to the other. If the network topology happens to force the voice packets via the server, this is still within the scope of the invention, as the voice packets are not stored on the server.
- each participating workstation locally records the voice channel (i.e. all the individual signals). This allows the conversation to be recovered in total even if one workstation subsequently fails or is tampered with.
- Non-voice data such as for example time stamps and the IP address of the workstation(s) or possibly picture data
- the replay of an intercom message is authorised by the server, which allows access to the stored voice data on either one or all participating workstations.
- the stored voice data is retrieved locally, and therefore network bandwidth is not used.
- Broadcast messages are essentially one way communication, whilst intercom messages are essentially two way. To provide a conference call in which two way communication is required for more than two participants, it is possible to use either the broadcast message format (i.e. routing all the data streams through the server) or the intercom format but with more than two workstation computers communicating with one another at any given time.
- the system administrator may, for example, decide that conference calls with 3 participants will use the intercom format, and conference calls with 4 or more participants will use the broadcast format.
- conference calls with 3 participants will use the intercom format
- conference calls with 4 or more participants will use the broadcast format.
- the break point between the two methods can be chosen to be at any desired number of participants, depending on what number is most convenient or efficient for a given application.
- intercom voice data stored locally can be periodically uploaded from each workstation to a common archive storage means such as a server. This can be achieved most conveniently on a day or at a time when network usage is low, so that network performance is not adversely impacted by the transfer.
- requests for replay of an intercom voice stream for the current day would be replayed using the topology of Figure 3, whilst occasional requests for replay of earlier messages would be handled by the archive server, depending upon how much storage has been designed into each workstation computer.
Landscapes
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Multimedia (AREA)
- Signal Processing (AREA)
- Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
- General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Data Exchanges In Wide-Area Networks (AREA)
- Telephonic Communication Services (AREA)
Abstract
La présente concerne un système de transmission de messages en temps réel sur un réseau d'ordinateurs. Les messages contiennent des données de radiodiffusion sonore ou vidéo devant être acheminées vers de nombreux ordinateurs, ainsi que des données d'intercommunication audio ou vidéo devant être acheminées entre ordinateurs. Le système comprend un dispositif de mémorisation de données permettant de mémoriser les données audio contenues dans chaque message de radiodiffusion et dans chaque message d'intercommunication, le dispositif de mémorisation de données stockant également des données d'identification permettant de déterminer ultérieurement un message de radiodiffusion donné ou un message d'intercommunication et de d'établir l'emplacement de sa mémoire. Les données de radiodiffusion et les données d'identification sont mémorisées dans un dispositif de mémorisation de données accessibles à tous et connecté au réseau; les données audio d'intercommunication sont mémorisées localement sur les ordinateurs intervenant dans un message d'intercommunication donné. Cela apporte une solution intégrée au traitement des messages et rend la vérification et la restitution d'un message donné plus efficace en terme d'utilisation de la largeur de bande.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
GB9916871.8 | 1999-07-20 | ||
GB9916871A GB2352357A (en) | 1999-07-20 | 1999-07-20 | Data/audio communication |
Publications (1)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
WO2001006745A1 true WO2001006745A1 (fr) | 2001-01-25 |
Family
ID=10857489
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/GB2000/002749 WO2001006745A1 (fr) | 1999-07-20 | 2000-07-18 | Système de transmission de messages, y compris de données audio, sur un réseau d'ordinateurs en temps réel. |
Country Status (2)
Country | Link |
---|---|
GB (1) | GB2352357A (fr) |
WO (1) | WO2001006745A1 (fr) |
Cited By (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
SG94759A1 (en) * | 2000-02-11 | 2003-03-18 | Purple Voice Ltd | A method of synchronising the replay of audio in a network of computers |
Families Citing this family (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US7089320B1 (en) * | 2001-06-01 | 2006-08-08 | Cisco Technology, Inc. | Apparatus and methods for combining data |
Citations (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
WO1992021211A1 (fr) * | 1991-05-21 | 1992-11-26 | Videotelecom Corp. | Systeme d'enregistrement de message sur support multiple |
EP0664636A2 (fr) * | 1994-01-19 | 1995-07-26 | International Business Machines Corporation | Système de conférence audio |
US5440624A (en) * | 1992-11-10 | 1995-08-08 | Netmedia, Inc. | Method and apparatus for providing adaptive administration and control of an electronic conference |
US5675511A (en) * | 1995-12-21 | 1997-10-07 | Intel Corporation | Apparatus and method for event tagging for multiple audio, video, and data streams |
Family Cites Families (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5737395A (en) * | 1991-10-28 | 1998-04-07 | Centigram Communications Corporation | System and method for integrating voice, facsimile and electronic mail data through a personal computer |
DE69400115T2 (de) * | 1993-06-22 | 1996-11-14 | Vmx Inc | Elektronisches Mitteilungssystem mit integrierten Sprachnachrichten |
US5740231A (en) * | 1994-09-16 | 1998-04-14 | Octel Communications Corporation | Network-based multimedia communications and directory system and method of operation |
GB2313250B (en) * | 1996-05-17 | 2000-05-31 | Motorola Ltd | Method of managing system resources in a multimedia conferencing network |
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1999
- 1999-07-20 GB GB9916871A patent/GB2352357A/en not_active Withdrawn
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2000
- 2000-07-18 WO PCT/GB2000/002749 patent/WO2001006745A1/fr active Application Filing
Patent Citations (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
WO1992021211A1 (fr) * | 1991-05-21 | 1992-11-26 | Videotelecom Corp. | Systeme d'enregistrement de message sur support multiple |
US5440624A (en) * | 1992-11-10 | 1995-08-08 | Netmedia, Inc. | Method and apparatus for providing adaptive administration and control of an electronic conference |
EP0664636A2 (fr) * | 1994-01-19 | 1995-07-26 | International Business Machines Corporation | Système de conférence audio |
US5675511A (en) * | 1995-12-21 | 1997-10-07 | Intel Corporation | Apparatus and method for event tagging for multiple audio, video, and data streams |
Cited By (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
SG94759A1 (en) * | 2000-02-11 | 2003-03-18 | Purple Voice Ltd | A method of synchronising the replay of audio in a network of computers |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
GB2352357A (en) | 2001-01-24 |
GB9916871D0 (en) | 1999-09-22 |
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