Patent ID: 6985564

Claim:
A distributed multimedia data system, comprising: a network; at least one customer server located at each one of a plurality of service suppliers, each customer server being configured to be connected to the network; and a shared resources host server connected to the network, comprising means for communicating through the network with a plurality of user stations by means of man-machine interface resources shared among the customer servers, and configured, to receive therefrom service requests from users also connected to the network, and to initially respond to each received service request to determine the service supplier concerned therewith, and to then direct each received service request to the at least one customer server at the concerned service supplier for execution of a respective service logic associated with services provided thereby, and executed at said service supplier to exchange information by means of the shared man-machine interface with the user station from which said one of the service requests has been received; and wherein the shared resources host server is connected to the network through an interface and includes: a protocol stack subsystem with an interface that: receives calls from a data network at an exchange: detects incoming calls and captures caller and called party numbers: detects dial tones: generates coding-decoding media data streams: and receives media coding-decoding data streams: a command interpreter subsystem that: generates messages on detection of new calls to each customer server: generates event messages; and uses the commands from the customer servers.