METHOD FOR CONTROLLING DATA STREAMS OF A VIRTUAL SESSION WITH MULTIPLE PARTICIPANTS, COLLABORATION SERVER, COMPUTER PROGRAM, COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT, AND DIGITAL STORAGE MEDIUM
The invention relates to a method for controlling data streams of a virtual session with several participants who access at least access one application in the virtual session. A selected media processing and a signaling mode is used in a centralized process for each participant according to the individual requirements of the participant. The participants are represented by clients and the process is controlled by a server. The selection of the media processing and/or signaling mode is made on the basis of an evaluation of the terminal of the respective participant and the network bandwidth available to the respective participant. An evaluation scheme with a plurality of evaluation criteria is provided for the evaluation, and possible media processing and/or signaling modes are ascertained for the respective participant, said evaluation scheme being applied to each possible media processing and/or signaling mode. A media processing and/or signaling mode determined using a comparison of the evaluations for each possible media processing and/or signaling mode according to the applied evaluation scheme is selected for the respective participant. The invention further relates to a collaboration server, a computer program, a computer program product, and a digital storage medium with the corresponding functional features.
1 - 14 . (canceled)
15 . A method for the control of virtual session data streams with several participants, said participants accessing at least one application during a virtual session, comprising:
for a plurality of participants in a centralized process, wherein each participant is represented by a client, and wherein the process is controlled by a server;
evaluating a plurality of evaluation criteria for each participant for selecting an individual mode, said plurality of evaluation criteria comprising evaluation of a terminal of each participant and evaluation of a network bandwidth available to each participant;
comparing the evaluation criteria according to applied evaluation matrices for possible media processing and signaling modes; and
performing a media processing and signaling mode for each participant according to the media processing and signaling evaluation.
16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the at least one application is selected from the group consisting of an audio conference, a video conference, a shared desktop data exchange between participants, a shared whiteboard data exchange, and a webcast.
17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the media processing is selected from the group consisting of adjustment of image formats, conversion of text into speech, and conversion of speech into text.
18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the signaling mode is selected from the group consisting of session initiation protocol (SIP), H.323, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), Web/http, and WebRTC.
19 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
deploying a generic signaling protocol for the abstraction of at least one signaling mode;
abstracting a data stream from a virtual room into the generic signaling protocol; and
transferring the generic signaling protocol to the signaling mode for each participant.
20 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising:
abstracting the data stream into the generic signaling protocol; and
transmitting the generic signaling protocol into a signaling type required by the at least one application.
21 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
awarding points during the evaluation step for selected evaluation criteria;
adding points of all evaluation criteria; and
obtaining an evaluation of a potential media upsampling.
22 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the evaluation criteria are selected from the group consisting of a browser resolution, an audio quality, a computing power, and a conversion effort.
23 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the centralized process manages the virtual session.
24 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the virtual session is presented to the participants in a virtual room.
25 . A collaboration server to control the data streams of a virtual session with multiple participants, said collaboration server executing steps comprising:
for a plurality of participants in a centralized process, wherein each participant is represented by a client, and wherein the process is controlled by a server;
evaluating a plurality of evaluation criteria for each participant for selecting an individual mode, said plurality of evaluation criteria comprising evaluation of a terminal of each participant and evaluation of a network bandwidth available to each participant;
comparing the evaluation criteria according to applied evaluation matrices for possible media processing and signaling modes; and
performing a media processing and signaling mode for each participant according to the media processing and signaling evaluation.
26 . A computer program containing computer program instructions that, when executed, performs the method of claim 15 .
27 . A computer-readable storage medium comprising the computer program of claim 26 .