Patent ID: 8149263

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a first user request to schedule local resources for a video conferencing session within a local network zone; accessing local services in the local network zone to schedule the local resources for the video conferencing session; receiving a second user request to schedule remote resources in a remote network zone for the video conferencing session; forwarding the second request to a local Network Zone Manager in the local network zone to determine a remote Network Zone Manager responsible for the remote resources in the remote network zone; sending the second request from the local Network Zone Manager to the remote Network Zone Manager; receiving at the local Network Zone Manager information on the availability of the remote resources from the remote Network Zone Manager; and scheduling the video conferencing session between the local and remote resources; wherein said sending the second request to the remote Network Zone Manager further comprises: causing a remote directory service in the remote network zone to be accessed for remote video endpoints, corresponding device information and dial strings, in response to the second request; causing a remote network model service in the remote network zone to be invoked to validate the second request based on available resources and bandwidth inside the remote network zone; and causing the remote Network Zone Manager to send the information on the availability of the remote resources to the local Network Zone Manager, in response to the second request.