Patent ID: 8073956

Claim:
In a networking environment configured to exchange different media types, a method of establishing a multimedia network session in which a first user may employ multiple computing devices to transmit data, the method comprising: polling a plurality of local computing device associated with the first user to determine local computing devices associated with the first user that will participate in the network session; collecting control information from at least two local computing devices associated with the first user that will participate in the network session; sending an invitation message that includes the collected control information to a computing device associated with a second user; receiving a response to the invitation message that includes control information collected from the second user; wherein sending an invitation message to a computing device associated with a second user includes multiplexing the control information into a single data structure by combining media lines and connection lines, and wherein receiving a response to the invitation message includes de-multiplexing the control information from the data structure; and sending a re-invite message based on the received control information to at least two local computing devices associated with the first user that will participate in the multimedia network session.