Gateway and method

1 . A method for forming a telecommunications call comprising the steps of:

calling from a first node having audio and video streams of a first network a second node having audio and video streams of a second network different from the first network; and

forming a call between the first node and the second node so the first node and the second node communicate their audio and video streams with each other.

2 . A method as described in claim 1 including the step of adding a third node having an audio stream and a video stream of the first network to the call to form a conference between the first, second and third nodes so the first, second and third nodes communicate their audio and video streams with each other.

3 . A method as described in claim 2 wherein the step of adding a third node includes the step of communicating with a host node to host the conference.

4 . A method as described in claim 3 wherein the forming step includes the step of terminating a first connection of the call between the first node and a gateway and creating a second connection of the call between the gateway and the second node in which data from the first connection is sent from the gateway to the second node.

5 . A method as described in claim 4 including the step of communicating between the second node and a fourth node having only an audio stream through the gateway and an audio mixer.

6 . A telecommunications system comprising:

a first network;

a first node having audio and video streams of the first network;

a second network different from the first network;

a second node having audio and video streams of the second network; and

means for forming a call between the first node and the second node so the first node and the second node communicate their audio and video streams with each other.

7 . A system as described in claim 6 including a third node having an audio stream and a video stream, and wherein the forming means includes a gateway which connects a conference between the first, second and third nodes so the first, second and third nodes communicate their audio and video telecommunications streams with each other.

8 . A system as described in claim 7 including a host node and wherein the gateway communicates with the host node.

9 . A system as described in claim 8 wherein the gateway terminates a first connection of the call between the first node and the gateway and creates a second connection of the call between the gateway and the second node in which data from the first connection is sent from the gateway to the second node.

10 . A system as described in claim 9 including an audio mixer in communication with the first network, and a fourth node having only an audio stream, and the second node communicates with the fourth node though the gateway and the mixer.

11 . A system as described in claim 10 wherein the gateway includes at least a first network interface card through which the gateway communicates with the first network.

12 . A system as described in claim 11 wherein the gateway includes a second network interface card through which the gateway communicates with the second network.

13 . A system as described in claim 12 wherein the gateway includes a memory for holding the audio streams and video streams of the first node, the second node and the third node.

14 . A system as described in claim 13 wherein the first node has an address, the second node has an address and the third node has an address, and there is a connection between the first, second and third nodes, and the memory stores the address of the first, second and third nodes.

15 . A system as described in claim 15 wherein the first network is an ATM network and the second network is an Ethernet network.

16 . A system as described in claim 15 wherein the gateway is a PC.

17 . A system as described in claim 16 wherein the first node and third node are part of the ATM network and the first node, third node and the gateway multicast packets to each other through the ATM network.