Patent ID: 7328264

Claim:
A system for scheduling networked video teleconferencing resources, comprising: at least one fractionally schedulable video teleconferencing resource having a maximum bandwidth and configured to simultaneously conduct a first video teleconference between first and second endpoints, via a first portion of said maximum bandwidth, and a second video teleconference between third and fourth endpoints, via a second portion of said maximum bandwidth; and a video teleconferencing scheduling engine configured to receive at different times a first and second video teleconferencing resource scheduling request corresponding to the simultaneous first and second video teleconferences, and to maintain a video teleconferencing resource usage table including a usage record identifying, by task and by requestor, one of a portion of the maximum bandwidth in use during a first predetermined window of time and a portion of the maximum bandwidth reserved for future use in a second predetermined window of time equal in length to the first predetermined window of time, wherein each usage record includes a corresponding task start time, task end time, total amount of reserved bandwidth, and a reserved resource identifier; each video teleconferencing resource scheduling request includes a corresponding requested task start time, task end time, total amount of requested bandwidth, and a requested resource identifier; and the video teleconferencing scheduling engine is configured to compare each video teleconferencing resource scheduling request in order of time of receipt to a stored usage record, and to individually grant each video teleconferencing resource scheduling request only if a grant will not result in an assignment within one of said first and second predetermined periods of time of a total bandwidth of the fractionally schedulable video teleconferencing resource greater than the maximum bandwidth of the fractionally schedulable video teleconferencing resource.