Patent ID: 6310862
Filing Date: 2001-10-30
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
A system for providing real-time multimedia conferencing services, to a dispersed plurality of locations connected to an ATM wide area network (WAN), the system comprising:an ATM wide area network including an ATM backbone network domain;at least one ATM access network domain; andone or more ATM cable modems,wherein a headend station-based ATM cable modem is provided at each ATM access network domain in said WAN, said ATM cable modems are designed to carry two-way multimedia signals, a number of ATM access network domains in the WAN is based on a size of the WAN, each ATM access network domain includes at least one access multimedia bridge server and at least one cable modem server, an ATM backbone network domain includes at least one central multimedia bridge server and at least one central ATM network server, and if a location includes an ATM cable modem, a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) access network connects the location to the ATM access network domain within the WAN, wherein the plurality of locations in a multimedia conference call are all connected to a single ATM access network domain, and the cable modem server of the ATM access network domain coordinates a multimedia conference call with the central ATM network server, including, maintaining address information of all cable modem-based locations within said ATM access network domain, maintaining bandwidth availability information for all HFC access networks within said ATM access network domain, coordinating bandwidth allocation, and coordinating conferencing information with the central ATM network server.