Patent ID: 8819133

Claim:
A method for controlling a token for an auxiliary stream in a multi-point double-stream conference performed by a multi-point control unit (MCU), the method comprising: receiving a token depriving request message for a token which is occupied by a first conference terminal in the multi-point double-stream conference sent by a second conference terminal, wherein the token depriving request message includes an identifier (ID) of the second conference terminal, wherein the ID of the second conference terminal is an MCU Terminal (MT) number that is assigned by the MCU; upon receiving the token depriving request message, determining to deprive the token which is occupied by the first conference terminal upon determining that the MT number of the second conference terminal exists in an MT number pool, wherein the MT number pool comprises multiple MT numbers each of which have permission to deprive a token for an auxiliary stream; and after determining to deprive the token which is occupied by the first conference terminal, depriving the token from the first conference terminal by sending a token request message to the first conference terminal which occupies the token, wherein the token request message is an H.239 protocol message that includes a symmetryBreaking field set to a field value of “0” indicating that the first conference terminal must release the token occupied by the first conference terminal.