Patent ID: 8502858

Claim:
A multi-endpoint video conferencing system, wherein audiovisual signals are scalably coded into layers including a base layer and one or more enhancement layers, the conferencing system comprising: a plurality of endpoints that individually can receive and/or transmit scalable audiovisual signals; a multicast scalable video communication server (MSVCS) linked to each of the endpoints by a corresponding unicast communication channel; a communication network that provides a plurality of multicast communication channels linking the endpoints and the MSVCS, wherein the endpoints are configured to transmit their individual audiovisual signal layers to other endpoints and the MSVCS using the plurality of multicast communication channels, and wherein the MSVCS is configured to cache audiovisual signal data received over the plurality of multicast communication channels from the plurality of the endpoints, and retransmit the cached data over a unicast communication channel to an endpoint that requests the cached audiovisual signal data over its unicast communication channel.