WO2011160490A1

WO2011160490A1 - Multipoint control unit resource scheduling method and system

Info

Publication number: WO2011160490A1
Application number: PCT/CN2011/073141
Authority: WO
Inventors: 李宁; 彭峰
Original assignee: 中兴通讯股份有限公司
Priority date: 2010-06-21
Filing date: 2011-04-21
Publication date: 2011-12-29
Also published as: CN101848170B; CN101848170A

Abstract

The present invention provides a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU) resource scheduling method and system, which is applied to the video conference system with multiple cascaded MCUs. The method includes: firstly, selecting, one by one, the MCU and allocating the terminals, till all the terminals required to be allocated are allocated; wherein, for the MCU selected every time, following steps are performed: reserving resources of M cascading interfaces of the MCU, in which M is smaller than a preset value; allocating terminals to the MCU till the other resources except the reservation resources are engaged; performing the resource validation for the MCU, wherein, configuring a master MCU; secondly, judging whether N, the number of the selected MCUs is equal to M+1; if it is, completing the MCU resource scheduling. According to the above technical solution provided by the present invention, the problem of lower resource scheduling utilization when multiple MCUs are cascaded to conduct video conference in the prior art is solved, so that the cascading interface can be reserved flexibly, and therefore the resource waste during the scheduling procedure is reduced.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular to a multipoint control unit (MCU for short) resource scheduling method and system. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION After years of development of video conferencing, in the current situation that the conference television network is becoming larger and larger, a single-level multipoint control unit (MCU) conference television system cannot meet the needs of the conference. Therefore, the cascading MCU has provided support for large-scale conferences and has become a necessary function of the conference television system. In view of the special nature of the meeting and the lack of MCU resources, it is generally necessary to make an advance reservation before the formal meeting. The essence of the meeting reservation is to make an appointment for the MCU resources. It is generally divided into the following steps: First, the MCU resources are scheduled to participate. The reserved terminal selects an appropriate MCU; secondly, the resource verification method is used to calculate the scheduled MCU resources to verify the rationality of the resource scheduling. At present, most conference television systems provide the function of scheduling MCU resources. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the utilization of existing MCU resources in the long-term scheduling, and avoid wasting redundant resources. The inventor has found that the following problems exist in the related art: When the automatic cascade reserving the cascade port is static, 1_the entire service server has X MCUs, and when scheduling the cascade conference, the first will be for each The MCU reserves X-1 expansion ports, and then allocates the terminals. After all the terminals are allocated, the expansion ports are adjusted. This not only wastes resources, but in the case of multiple MCUs, the actual reservation can be successful. The meeting is now unsuccessful. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention aims to provide an MCU resource scheduling method and system to solve at least one of the above problems, in view of the problem that the resource scheduling utilization is low when a plurality of MCUs are cascaded to hold video conferences in the related art. According to an aspect of the present invention, an MCU resource scheduling method is provided. The MCU resource scheduling method according to the present invention is applied to a video conference system in which a plurality of MCUs are cascaded, including: first selecting an MCU one by one and allocating a terminal until all terminals to be allocated are allocated. After the MCU is selected, the following steps are performed: Reserve the resources of the M cascade ports, where M is less than the preset value; allocate the terminal to the other resources except the reserved resources. Compensate for resource verification, where the primary MCU is set; secondly, it is determined whether the number N of selected MCUs is M+1; if yes, the MCU resource scheduling is completed. The above M is 1. The MCU is selected in the following manner: The MCUs in the video conference system are sorted according to the remaining resource size; each time the MCU with the largest remaining resources is selected. The terminal is allocated to the MCU by: for each MCU, after allocating a terminal having one cascade port and multiple capabilities, the terminal in the terminal group with the largest total bandwidth is allocated to the MCU, and the MCU also has When the remaining resources are used, the terminals in the terminal group of the unassigned terminal are successively allocated to the MCU until the MCU resources are occupied. When the number of selected MCUs is not M+1, the method further includes: removing the terminal on the primary MCU, and reallocating the removed terminal to another MCU until the number of selected MCUs is N. It is M+ 1 , where other MCUs are newly added MCUs and/or MCUs that are not full of resources. According to another aspect of the present invention, an MCU resource scheduling system is provided. The MCU resource scheduling system according to the present invention is applied to a video conference system in which a plurality of MCUs are cascaded, and includes: a processing module, configured to select an MCU one by one and allocate a terminal, until all terminals that need to be allocated are allocated, wherein, for each time The selected MCU performs the following processing: Reserves resources of its M cascade ports, where M is less than a predetermined value, and allocates terminals until its resources other than reserved resources are occupied, and performs resource verification on the MCUs. Wherein, the first MCU that passes the verification is set as the main MCU; the judging module is set to determine whether the number N of the selected MCU is M+1; the determining module is set to be in the case that the output of the judging module is YES, Determine the completion of MCU resource scheduling. When the processing module allocates a terminal for each MCU, the processing module reserves a resource of one cascade port. The processing module further includes: a sorting unit, configured to sort the MCUs in the video conference system according to the remaining resource size; and the selecting unit is configured to select the MCU with the largest remaining resources each time. The processing module further includes: an allocating unit, configured to allocate, for each MCU, a terminal having a cascade port and multiple capabilities, and allocate a terminal in the terminal group with the largest total bandwidth to the MCU, where the MCU When there are remaining resources, the terminals in the terminal group of the unassigned terminal are successively allocated to the MCU until the MCU resource is occupied. Said system further comprising: adjustment module, the number N set in the selected MCU is not M + 1, remove the terminal on the master MCU, and removing the terminal ¹ ^ reallocated to another MCU, until the selected The number N of the MCUs is M+1, wherein the other MCUs are MCUs with new ports and/or MCUs that are not full of resources. According to the present invention, the MCUs are selected one by one and the terminals are allocated until the terminals to be allocated are all allocated. When the number N of selected MCUs is the number of cascade ports of the first MCU through which the risk is passed, Determine that the MCU resource scheduling is successful. The problem that the resource scheduling utilization is low when the video conference is held by multiple MCUs in the related art is solved, and the expansion port can be flexibly reserved, thereby reducing the waste of resources in the scheduling process. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are set to illustrate,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 1 is a flowchart of an MCU resource scheduling method according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of a plurality of MCU cascaded video conference systems according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a preferred implementation of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a structural block diagram of an MCU resource scheduling system according to an embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 5 is a structural block diagram of an MCU resource scheduling system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the embodiments in the present application and the features in the embodiments may be combined with each other without conflict. In the related art, in a video conference system that requires multiple MCUs to be cascaded, it is assumed that the entire service server has X MCUs. When scheduling a cascade conference, X-1 cascade ports are reserved for each MCU first, and then Redistribute the terminal, and then adjust the cascade port after all terminals are allocated. With this resource scheduling scheme, resource utilization is low. FIG. 1 is a flowchart of an MCU resource scheduling method according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the MCU resource scheduling method includes the following processes: Step S102: Select an MCU one by one and allocate a terminal, until all terminals that need to be allocated are allocated; wherein, for each selected MCU, perform the following steps:

(1) reserve resources for its M cascade ports;

(2) allocating terminals to them until their resources other than reserved resources are occupied;

(3) performing resource verification, wherein the first MCU that passes the verification is set as the main MCU; Step S104: determining whether the number N of the selected MCUs is M+1; Step 4: S106: If yes , then complete the MCU resource scheduling.釆 Using the above method, select the MCUs one by one and allocate the terminals one by one, until all the terminals to be allocated are all allocated, when the number N of selected MCUs is the number of cascade ports of the first MCU through which the risk is passed plus one , determine that the MCU resource scheduling is successful. The resource scheduling of the method is completely independent of the number of MCUs during scheduling, and the expansion of the cascade port is flexibly reduced, thereby reducing the waste of resources, and the scheduling of the automatic cascade conference is really achieved. Preferably, in step S102, for each MCU selected, one cascade port (ie, M=l) may be reserved. Of course, in the implementation process, another number (for example, 2, 3, etc.) of the cascade ports may be reserved for each MCU. However, considering the problem of saving resources, the M setting value should be determined according to the specific situation and should be less than a predetermined value. A preferred embodiment of reserving one cascade port for each MCU is described below in conjunction with FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a plurality of MCU cascaded video conferencing systems in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 2, using the cascading mode shown in Figure 1 (one cascading port is reserved for each;), the following MCU cascading topology can be formed: the first resource-risk pass The MCU is the main MCU, and the main MCU is connected to multiple MCUs (that is, MCUs that are not verified by the first resource). Among them, the above-mentioned resource-risk method can use the existing technology-risk method, for example, to verify whether a video conference can be successfully held. Preferably, in step S102, the MCU can be selected in the following manner:

(1) Sort the MCUs in the video conferencing system according to the remaining resource size;

(2) Select the MCU with the largest remaining resources each time. In the preferred implementation process, the MCU with the largest remaining resources may be pre-selected, and the terminal is allocated in sequence. By using this scheme, the number of MCUs used in the current resource scheduling process can be saved as much as possible, thereby effectively saving MCU resources. Preferably, the terminal can be allocated to the MCU by: after assigning a terminal having one cascade port and multiple capabilities to each MCU, the terminal in the terminal group with the largest total bandwidth is allocated to the MCU, where When there are remaining resources in the MCU, the terminals in the terminal group of the unassigned terminal are successively allocated to the MCU until the resources of the MCU are occupied. The above multi-capable terminal refers to a terminal having multiple capabilities, such as high definition, standard definition, and the like. For each MCU, assigning a terminal with one cascade port and multiple capabilities is because the cascaded MCU cannot predict what kind of terminal will be allocated, so each cascaded MCU must hold a hybrid conference, When the MCU allocates a terminal, it must allocate one terminal of other capabilities to allow the resource algorithm to reserve multi-capable resources. In the preferred implementation process, it is first necessary to allocate a cascade port and a multi-capability terminal. Then, according to the greedy algorithm principle that is used up as much as possible, the terminal in the terminal group with the largest total bandwidth is preferentially allocated to the MCU, and the MCU resource considers both the limitation of the bandwidth and the number of terminals that can be accessed. If all the terminals in a terminal group have remaining resources after being placed in the MCU, try to continue to assign the terminal in the next terminal group to the MCU; if the terminals in one terminal group cannot all be allocated to the MCU, then How much can be allocated as much as possible, and the resources of this MCU are exhausted. By using the above processing, the allocation of terminals can be concentrated, and the allocation efficiency can be effectively improved. Preferably, the number N of the selected MCU is not M + 1, the above method may further include the following processing: the master MCU to remove the terminal, and to remove the terminal ¹ ^ reallocated to another MCU, until the The number of selected MCUs is M+1, where other MCUs are MCUs with new ports and/or MCUs that are not full of resources. Through the above-mentioned continuous adjustment, the waste of resources is reduced, and the scheduling of the automatic cascade conference is really realized. For example, the current primary MCU reserves a cascade port, and when the terminal is allocated, a total of three MCUs are used. Then, the number of selected MCUs N (in this case, 3) is not M+1 (in this case, 2). Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the number of cascade ports of the main MCU. In the preferred implementation, adjust the main MCU. The number of cascading ports mainly includes the following processes: removing the terminal on the primary MCU, and reallocating the removed terminal to other MCUs until the number N of selected MCUs is M+1, where the other MCUs are The newly added MCU and/or the MCU that is not full of resources. The above preferred implementation process is described below with reference to Figure 3. Figure 3 is a flow chart of the MCU resource scheduling method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The MCU resource scheduling method of the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes the following processing: Step S302: Before the resource scheduling, the conference resource needs to be initialized, including the board resource, the terminal resource, and the MCU resource, which are all necessary for the MCU resource scheduling; Step S304: According to the principle of load balancing, the remaining IP bandwidths of all candidate MCUs are sequentially ordered from the largest to the smallest, and the terminals are sequentially allocated to the MCUs in sequence; Step 4: S306: Allocating terminals to the MCU until the resources of the MCU In the preferred implementation process, the process of assigning a terminal to an MCU is as follows: First, it is necessary to allocate a cascade port and a multi-capability terminal. Then follow the algorithm principle that is used up as much as possible, and preferentially set the terminal group with the largest total bandwidth. The terminal in the terminal is allocated to the MCU, and the MCU resource considers both the limitation of the bandwidth and the number of terminals that can be accessed. If the terminals in a terminal group are all placed in the MCU and there are remaining resources, try to continue 4 The terminal in a terminal group of the terminal is allocated to the MCU; if the terminal in a terminal group cannot be allotted to the MCU, how much can be allocated as much as possible, until the resources of the MCU are exhausted. Step S308: Step S306 After the completion, the resource verification is performed on the MCU. Step S310: If the resource-risk is passed in step S308, if the primary MCU has not been set, the MCU is set as the primary MCU. Step S312: determining whether the terminal is allocated, if the allocation is completed. Go to step S314; if not, go to step S318. Determine whether all MCUs are allocated, if not assigned After completion, the allocation is continued to the next MCU, starting from step S306; if the allocation is completed, the scheduling fails, and the returning step 4 is gathered S320. Step S314: Step S316 is a key algorithm of the present invention, and the prior art scheme is improved. Determine whether the number of cascaded ports meets the following conditions: Μ=Ν-1, where M is the number of cascaded ports on the MCU, and N is the number of MCUs used by the conference. If the condition is met, the scheduling is successful, and the process returns to step S320. If the condition is not met, the process proceeds to step S316. Step S316: The expansion of the cascade port is mainly performed by adjusting the main MCU until the number of the cascaded ports on the main MCU meets the condition. Of course, the cascading port on the main MCU is added. To remove the corresponding terminal, the resource verification on the main MCU is passed, and then the removed terminal is allocated, and the process proceeds to step S306. 4 is a structural block diagram of an MCU resource scheduling system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The MCU resource scheduling system is applied to a video conference system in which a plurality of MCUs are cascaded. As shown in FIG. 4, the MCU resource scheduling system includes: a processing module 40, a determining module 42, and a determining module 44. The processing module 40 is configured to select the MCUs one by one and allocate the terminals until all the terminals that need to be allocated are allocated. The processing module 40 performs the following processing for each selected MCU:

(1) Reserve resources of its M cascade ports, where M is less than a predetermined value;

(2) Allocating a terminal to it until its resources other than reserved resources are occupied,

(3) performing resource verification, wherein the first MCU that passes the verification is set as the main MCU; the determining module 42 is configured to determine whether the number N of the selected MCU is M+1; the determining module 44 is set to In the case that the judgment module output is YES, it is determined that the MCU resource scheduling is completed. Using the above system, the processing module 40 selects the MCUs one by one and allocates the terminals one by one until all the terminals to be allocated are all allocated. When the number of selected MCUs is the number of cascaded ports of the first MCU to be verified, the number is increased by one. When it is determined that the MCU resource scheduling is successful. The system completely ignores the number of MCUs when scheduling resources, and flexibly reserves the cascade ports, which reduces the waste of resources and really delays the scheduling of automatic cascade conferences. Preferably, the processing module 40 may reserve one (ie, M=l) resources of the cascade port when allocating the terminal for each MCU. Preferably, as shown in FIG. 5, the processing module 40 may further include a sorting unit 400 and a selecting unit 402, wherein the sorting unit 400 is configured to sort the MCUs in the video conferencing system according to the remaining resource size; the selecting unit 402 is set to each Select the MCU with the largest remaining resources. Preferably, as shown in FIG. 5, the processing module 40 may further include: an allocating unit 404, configured to allocate, for each MCU, a terminal group having a current total bandwidth after allocating a terminal having one cascade port and multiple capabilities The terminal in the terminal is allocated to the MCU, and when there are remaining resources in the MCU, the terminal in the terminal group of the unassigned terminal is successively allocated to the MCU until the MCU resource is occupied. Preferably, as shown in FIG. 5 above system may further comprise: an adjustment module 46, is set to the number N of the selected MCU is not M + 1, remove the terminal on the master MCU, and removing ^ ¹ The terminal is reassigned to other MCUs until the number of selected MCUs is M+1, where the other MCUs are MCUs with new ports and/or MCUs that are not full of resources. In a preferred implementation process, the processing module 40 may first reserve a cascade port when selecting an MCU, and then schedule the terminal to the MCU until the MCU resource is full. After the resource verification, the first verified MCU is set as the primary MCU. Thereafter, processing module 40 continues to schedule unallocated terminals in accordance with the above-described processing. In the preferred implementation process, after the terminal is allocated, it is determined whether the number N of the selected MCUs is M+1; if yes, the current resource scheduling is completed. If not, you need to adjust the cascade port of the main MCU. That is, the number of the cascade ports on the primary MCU is adjusted, the corresponding terminals on the cascade ports that need to be added are removed, and the removed terminals are reassigned to other MCUs until the number of selected MCUs is M+. l. The other MCUs may be newly added MCUs and/or MCUs that are not full of resources. It should be noted that the preferred working mode of the foregoing MCU resource scheduling system can be seen in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 , and details are not described herein again. In summary, with the above-mentioned embodiments provided by the present invention, the topology relationship of the cascading conference is determined according to the correspondence between each terminal capability set and the MCU; when the terminal is allocated to the MCU, the cascading port terminal is flexibly allocated to reduce redundant Waste of resources; determine the main MCU by the assigned terminal MCU; automatically adjust the cascade port for redistribution. Compared with the prior art, by optimizing the original scheduling strategy, When the terminal is allocated, the expansion port is reserved in real time. After all the terminals are allocated, the expansion port is adjusted until the final scheduling is successful. The resource scheduling of the method is completely independent of the number of MCUs in the scheduling, and the expansion of the cascade port is flexibly reduced, thereby reducing the waste of resources and realizing the scheduling of the automatic cascade conference. Obviously, those skilled in the art should understand that the above modules or steps of the present invention can be implemented by a general-purpose computing device, which can be concentrated on a single computing device or distributed over a network composed of multiple computing devices. Alternatively, they may be implemented by program code executable by the computing device, such that they may be stored in the storage device by the computing device and, in some cases, may be different from the order herein. The steps shown or described are performed, or they are separately fabricated into individual integrated circuit modules, or a plurality of modules or steps are fabricated as a single integrated circuit module. Thus, the invention is not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software. The above is only the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and changes can be made to the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the scope of the present invention are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

Claim

A multi-point control unit MCU resource scheduling method, which is applied to a video conference system in which multiple MCUs are cascaded, including:

The MCUs are selected one by one and the terminals are allocated until all the terminals that need to be allocated are allocated; wherein, for each selected MCU, the following steps are performed:

Allocating resources of the M cascade ports, where the M is smaller than a preset value; allocating the terminal to the resource other than the reserved resource is occupied; and performing a resource-risk certificate, wherein , setting the main MCU;

Determining whether the number of selected MCUs is M+1;

If yes, the MCU resource scheduling is completed.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the M is 1.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the MCU is selected by:

Sorting the MCUs in the video conference system according to remaining resource sizes;

Select the MCU with the largest remaining resources each time.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the terminal is allocated to the MCU by: for each MCU, after allocating a terminal having one cascade port and multiple capabilities, the terminal group having the largest total bandwidth is the largest. The terminal is allocated to the MCU, and when there are remaining resources in the MCU, the terminals in the terminal group of the unassigned terminal are successively allocated to the MCU until the MCU resource is occupied.

The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein, when the number N of the selected MCUs is not M+1, the method further includes: removing the terminal on the primary MCU , and ^! The removed terminal is reassigned to other MCUs until the number N of selected MCUs is M+1, wherein the other MCUs are newly added MCUs and/or MCUs that are not full of resources.

6. A multi-point control unit MCU resource scheduling system, applied to a plurality of MCU cascaded video conferencing systems, comprising: The processing module is configured to select the MCUs and allocate the terminals one by one until all the terminals to be allocated are all allocated. For each selected MCU, the following processing is performed: Reserve resources of the M cascade ports, where M If the resource is less than the predetermined value, the terminal is allocated to the resource until the other resources except the reserved resource are full, and the first MCU that passes the verification is set as the primary MCU;

The determining module is configured to determine whether the number N of the selected MCUs is M+1; and the determining module is configured to determine that the MCU resource scheduling is completed if the output of the determining module is YES.

The system according to claim 6, wherein the processing module reserves a resource of one cascade port when allocating a terminal for each MCU.

The system of claim 6, wherein the processing module further comprises:

a sorting unit, configured to sort the MCUs in the video conference system according to remaining resource sizes;

Select the unit and set it to select the MCU with the largest remaining resources each time.

9. The system according to claim 6, wherein the processing module further comprises:

An allocation unit, configured to allocate, for each MCU, a terminal having a cascade port and multiple capabilities, to allocate a terminal in a terminal group having the largest total bandwidth to the MCU, and when there are remaining resources in the MCU The terminal in the terminal group of the unassigned terminal is allocated to the MCU one by one until the MCU resource is occupied.

The system according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein the system further comprises: an adjustment module, configured to remove the number of selected MCUs when the number N is not M+1 MCU on the main terminal, and ^a removal of the terminal ^ reallocated to another MCU, the MCU until the selected number N to M + 1, wherein, the other MCU is the MCU and the new force opening / Or an MCU that is not full of resources.