Hybrid P2P Server Teleconferencing Topology
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current teleconferencing systems face challenges in optimizing conferencing mechanisms, particularly in managing latency and bandwidth, especially in mobile environments where power, processing power, and bandwidth are limited, and there is a need for a mechanism to adapt to varying channel conditions.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that measure channel quality parameters such as bandwidth, error rate, and latency to select an adaptive coding scheme, allowing terminals to communicate directly via peer-to-peer networks while using conferencing servers or peer-servers for other connections, enabling terminals to migrate between conferencing topologies and combine them for optimized performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If peer-to-peer communication is used for all terminals, then latency is reduced, but processing power and bandwidth requirements at each terminal increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments terminals into different groups based on their channel quality measurements. Terminals with similar channel characteristics are grouped together and can communicate directly via peer-to-peer, while terminals with different characteristics communicate through proxy servers. This segmentation allows the system to reduce latency for compatible terminals without overburdening any single terminal with excessive processing requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by creating groups of terminals with similar channel quality characteristics. Each group can use optimized communication strategies tailored to their specific conditions. Terminals in the same group have matching processing capabilities and bandwidth requirements, allowing efficient direct communication without requiring each terminal to handle all possible communication scenarios.
2Loss of time
If peer-to-peer communication is used for all terminals, then latency is reduced, but bandwidth requirements at each terminal increase
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting terminals into groups based on channel quality, the system enables direct peer-to-peer communication only between terminals that can efficiently handle the bandwidth requirements. Other terminals use proxy servers that aggregate and manage bandwidth consumption, reducing the bandwidth burden on individual terminals while maintaining low latency where possible.
3Power
If hub-based conferencing is used, then processing requirements at terminals are reduced, but latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically selects between hub-based and peer-to-peer communication modes based on real-time channel quality measurements. When channel conditions are favorable, terminals switch to direct peer-to-peer communication to reduce latency. When conditions are poor or terminals have limited capabilities, the system uses hub-based communication to reduce processing requirements. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by allowing both modes to be used appropriately.
4Reliability
If different coding schemes are used for different terminals, then communication quality is optimized, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality by assigning coding schemes based on terminal groups with similar channel characteristics. Terminals in the same group use the same coding scheme, which optimizes communication quality for their specific conditions. The proxy servers manage the complexity of determining and distributing appropriate coding schemes to different groups, rather than requiring each terminal to independently handle all coding scheme decisions.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and a method for teleconferencing including a plurality of terminals, a plurality of peer servers and at least one conferencing servers, where the terminals measure their channel quality, create at least one group of terminals according to their channel quality measurements, and using a coding scheme adaptive to the channel quality measurements. The terminals communicate conferencing content via peer-to-peer communication, directly between terminals who are members of the group of terminals, and using the selected coding scheme, and communicate the same conferencing content with other terminals participating in the conferencing call via at least one network device such as a conferencing-server and a peer-server. Where the conferencing-server and/or the peer-server provide conversion for the conferencing content, adaptive to the other terminals.