Patent ID: 9614687
Date: 2017-04-04
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method comprising: at a controller of a conference system including geographically distributed media agents that are devices configured to perform media packet processing operations and that are configurable by the controller over a network to connect with each other and/or with callers to form media pathways over which media packets are exchanged: receiving access requests to access a conference session from respective callers; responsive to the access requests, sending a conference identifier (ID) and respective agent discovery information to each of the callers, wherein each caller is configured to discover a network address of an appropriate respective media agent based on the respective agent discovery information and send a join request including the conference ID to that media agent, which prompts that media agent to forward the conference ID to the controller; and receiving the conference ID forwarded by each media agent and responsive thereto: associating the media agents with the conference session based on the conference ID; and providing to the media agents configuration information that is used by the media agents to form media connections with the respective callers and each other for the conference session to complete a media pathway between the callers and over which the callers exchange media packets.