Patent ID: 7061903

Claim:
A media communication system for performing media communication between first and second terminals, each of which is constructed so as to be capable of IP communication, via an IP network, comprising: a terminal as the first terminal having a media/signal converter for generating and sending a media signal and receiving a media signal, and a controller for controlling connection to the second terminal and for controlling sending/receiving of a media signal when a call is generated; an IP packetizing unit for IP-packetizing and sending, to the IP network, a media signal sent from the first terminal, and for converting an IP packet received from the IP network to a media signal and sending the media signal to the first terminal; and a media signal transmitting unit for connecting said media/signal converter, which is provided within the first terminal, to said IP packetizing unit, and for transmitting a media signal between said media signal converter and said IP packetizing unit, wherein when the controller of said first terminal performs connection control by generation of a call, said controller communicates with said IP packetizing unit to acquire an IP address and port number of said IP packetizing unit, reports this IP address and port number to the second terminal, receives an IP address and port number of the second terminal from the second terminal and reports these to said IP packetizing unit, and said controller controls the media signal transmitting unit to connect said media signal converter and said IP packetizing unit, said IP packetizing unit packetizes a media signal received from the media/signal converter via said media signal transmitting unit and sends the resulting packet to the IP network using the IP address and port number of the second terminal as the destination, and the second terminal sends a media-signal IP packet to the IP network using the IP address and port number of said IP packetizing unit as the destination and said IP packetizing unit converts the IP packet received from the IP network to a media signal and sends the media signal to said media/signal converter via the media signal transmitting unit.