Patent ID: 7570665

Claim:
A method, in a communication network, of generating a mixed media stream from different types of input media streams including audio, video and text, input media streams of a first type having payload data elements and related identifiers, respectively, comprising the step: aligning the input media streams of the first type in an identifier interface unit, according to a pre-specified relation between identifiers in the input media streams of the first type before generating the mixed media stream, wherein the pre-specified relation between identifiers in the input media streams of the first type is matched, in an alignment unit, to a relation between identifiers in further input media streams of a second type used during generation of a further mixed media stream from the input media streams of the second type, wherein the matching of relations between identifiers in the input media streams of the first type and further input media streams of the second type is achieved by identifying an intersection in a pre-processing unit, between the input media streams of the first type and the further input media streams of the second type; determining a relation between identifiers, using a calculation unit, in the further input media streams of the second type for those further input media streams which are comprised in the intersection; aligning the input media streams of the first type using an aligning unit which are comprised in the intersection according to the relation of identifiers in the further input media streams of the second type, wherein the input media streams of the first type at a point in time are described by I s =[( q 1 ,n 1 ),( q 2 ,n 2 ), . . . ,( q s ,n s )] with {q 1 ,q 2 , . . . ,q m } as a set of input media streams and {n 1 ,n 2 , . . . ,n s } as a set of identifiers in the input media streams at a point in time, the further input media streams of the second type at a point in time are described by I M =[(s 1 ,i 1 ),(s 2 ,i 2 ), . . . ,(s m ,i m )] with {s 1 ,s 2 , . . . ,s m } as a set of further input media streams and {i 1 ,i 2 , . . . i m } as a set of identifiers in the further input media streams of the second type at the point in time, the intersection between the input media streams of the first type and the further input media streams of the second type is S A ={s 1 ,s 2 , . . . ,S m }∩{q 1 ,q 2 , . . . q s }, and the relation between identifiers in the further input media streams of the second type for those further input media streams of the second type which are comprised in the intersection is determined by I S ′ = ⋃ j ∈ [ 1 , … ⁢ , s ] ⁢ { ( q j , n j ) ⁢ ❘ ⁢ q j ∈ S A } .