Patent ID: 7751434

Claim:
A network architecture for a video communications system, comprising: a server for receiving login data for a video communications (VC) session from a plurality of participants, each participant being associated with a client machine; a controller configured to control the VC session based on the login data; and a plurality of geographically-dispersed reflectors; the plurality of reflectors each being configured to service one or more client machines such that a reflector servicing a particular client machine is the closest available reflector to that client machine based on network proximity, and wherein the reflectors establish routing of audio/visual data within a multiparty VC session between a particular client machine and a plurality of other client machines; the controller being operable to configure one or more of the reflectors as to which client machines are permitted to send audio/visual data and which client machines are permitted to receive audio/visual data without informing the server of all of the send/receive permissions based on the data for the purpose of routing audio/visual (AV) data between two or more client machines.