WO2011150868A1 - Method and system for conference cascading - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method and system for conference cascading, which are applied in a video conference system. The method includes: a conference reservation module reserves Multipoint Control Unit (MCU) resources corresponding to multiple conferences (S702); if the multiple conferences correspond to different MCUs, the conference reservation module searches the predetermined MCU cascading relationships for the cascading relationships between the MCUs corresponding to each conference and sends the cascading relationships to a conference scheduling module (S704); and the conference scheduling module adds the cascading ports corresponding to the found cascading relationships to each conference (S706). According to the technical solutions provided by the present invention, each MCU can be automatically cascaded to form an automatic cascaded conference which is transparent to users, thus greatly increasing the system usability and improving the user experience.

Description

 TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular to a conference cascading method and system. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A conference television system mainly includes: a multipoint control unit (MCU for short) and a terminal.

The MCU is a key device of the multi-point video conferencing system. It extracts audio, video, data and other information and signaling from the information flow from each conference site, and then sends the information and signaling of each conference site separately. The multi-point control module and the media processing module complete the corresponding audio mixing or switching, video mixing or switching, data broadcasting and routing, timing and conference control, and finally recombine various information required for each conference site. , sent to each corresponding terminal system equipment. Terminals are mainly divided into two types: desktop conference terminals and conference room conference terminals. The desktop conference terminal is low in cost and easy to use, and is suitable for personal office use and small-scale conferences. The conference room type terminal is equipped with external auxiliary equipment such as high-quality zoom lens, high-fidelity audio, large-screen color TV or projection, plus the video pre-processing/post-processor, which makes the picture quality clearer and achieves better conference results. Suitable for holding large-scale meetings. The conference room terminal is suitable for conference rooms, a few to dozens of participants. A broadcast terminal is a one-way receiving terminal that can receive images and sounds of a conference, but cannot transmit images and sounds. The broadcast terminal can be set to occasions where information needs to be transmitted only in one direction, for example, when the superior level communicates policies to the lower level. The mobile terminal is based on the desktop terminal, equipped with a wireless access card and a wireless transmitting device, and can be moved to join the conference within a certain area. The conference terminal is configured in the local conference site and each conference site in the video conference. 1 is a schematic structural view of a conference television system. As shown in FIG. 1, the conference television system includes: a single, multiple video stream venue and an MCU 13. Among them, 111, 112, and 113 are multi-stream venues, and 121, 122, and 123 are single-stream venues. Among them, 111 venues are broadcast source venues, other venues are watching 111 venues; 111 are viewing venues 113 venues. The single-stream sites 121, 122, and 123 can only select one stream of multiple streams in the 111 conference site. 111 venues can see a multi-stream venue. In the related art, in a conference television system, if multiple MCUs need to be cascaded to meet, only multiple conferences can be held, and then each conference is manually added to a cascade port in advance, so that Multiple MCUs are cascaded, which is cumbersome to use. Each conference needs to be manually convened one by one, and the management terminal must be managed separately in each conference, which cannot be managed uniformly. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to providing a cascading method and system for a multi-point control unit to solve the problem of manually arranging individual MCUs in a related art when a conference containing multiple MCUs is held. At least one of the above issues. According to an aspect of the present invention, a conference cascading method is provided. The conference cascading method according to the present invention is applied to a conference television system, and includes: a conference reservation module reserves a multi-point control unit MCU resource corresponding to multiple conferences; if multiple conferences correspond to different MCUs, the conference reservation module is cascaded in a predetermined MCU In the relationship, the cascading relationship between the MCUs corresponding to the conferences is queried and sent to the conference scheduling module. The conference scheduling module adds the cascading ports corresponding to the cascading relationships. Go to each meeting. If the conference corresponds to the same MCU, the method further includes: the conference scheduling module automatically creates an IP cascade interface, and adds the terminal to each terminal included in the conference. After the cascading port is added, the method further includes: the MCU convening each of the conferences by using the resource. Before the conference reservation module reserves the MCU resource, the method further includes: the conference scheduling module splitting the conference packet into one or more conferences according to the MCU included in each conference packet. Before the splitting the conference packet, the method further includes: the conference scheduling module determining an MCU to which each terminal belongs and the predetermined MCU cascading relationship; and the conference scheduling module according to the predetermined MCU cascading relationship The terminal is added to a plurality of the conference packets. Adding each of the terminals to a plurality of the conference packets includes at least one of the following: adding terminals corresponding to the same MCU to the same conference packet; adding terminals corresponding to the same MCU to different conference packets; corresponding to different MCUs The terminal is added to the same conference group. According to another aspect of the present invention, a conference cascading system is provided. The conference cascading system according to the present invention is applied to a conference television system, and includes: a conference reservation module, configured to reserve resources of a multipoint control unit MCU corresponding to a plurality of conferences, and when the plurality of conferences correspond to different MCUs, at a predetermined MCU Query the cascading relationship between the MCUs corresponding to each conference in the cascading relationship And sent to the conference scheduling module; the conference scheduling module is configured to add the cascade port corresponding to the cascading relationship found by the conference reservation module to each conference. The conference scheduling module is further configured to automatically create an IP cascade port and allocate the terminal to each terminal included in the conference when the conference corresponds to the same MCU. The conference scheduling module is further configured to split the conference packet into one or more conferences according to the MCU included in each conference packet. The conference scheduling module is further configured to determine an MCU to which each terminal belongs and the predetermined MCU cascading relationship, and add each of the terminals to the plurality of conference packets according to the predetermined MCU cascading relationship. According to the present invention, when a plurality of conferences correspond to different MCUs, the conference reservation module queries the cascading relationship between the MCUs corresponding to the conferences in the predetermined MCU cascading relationship, and sends the cascading relationship between the MCUs to the conference scheduling module; the conference scheduling module will find The cascading port corresponding to the cascading relationship is added to each conference to realize the automatic cascading of the conference. This solves the problem of manually arranging the MCUs manually when convening a conference with multiple MCUs in related technologies. In turn, each MCU can be automatically cascaded to form an automatic cascading conference transparent to the user, which greatly increases the system usability and improves the user experience. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are set to illustrate,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a conference television system; FIG. 2 is a structural block diagram of a cascade system of a multipoint control unit according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a grouping structure tree in a preferred embodiment of the present invention; 4 is a flowchart of a conference splitting method when a terminal on a same MCU is added to a packet according to an example of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a different terminal added to the same MCU according to an example of the present invention. Flow chart of the method of conference splitting when grouping; 6 is a flowchart of a conference splitting method when a terminal on a different MCU according to an example of the present invention is added to a packet; FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a cascade method of a multipoint control unit according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 8 is a flow chart of a cascading method of a multipoint control unit in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of the cascading method shown in Figure 8. BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the embodiments in the present application and the features in the embodiments may be combined with each other without conflict. 2 is a structural block diagram of a cascade system of a multipoint control unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the cascade system of the multipoint control unit includes: a conference reservation module 20 and a conference scheduling module 22. The conference reservation module 20 is configured to reserve resources of the MCU corresponding to the multiple conferences. When multiple conferences correspond to different MCUs, the cascading relationship between the MCUs corresponding to the conferences is queried in the predetermined MCU cascading relationship, and sent to the cascading relationship between the MCUs corresponding to the conferences. The conference scheduling module 22 is configured to add a cascade port corresponding to the cascade relationship found by the conference reservation module to each conference. In the current conference television system, the foregoing cascade port may include, but is not limited to, a dedicated line cascade port and an IP cascade port. Specifically, the dedicated line cascade port can be further divided into: a high-definition cascade interface and an E1 cascade interface. By using the above-mentioned cascading system, it is not necessary to manually add a cascading port to each conference. The conference scheduling module uniformly adds the cascading port corresponding to the cascading relationship found by the conference reservation module to each conference, so there is no need to Multiple conferences are held on each MCU. Once it is convened, the automatic cascading of multiple MCU conferences can be realized, which greatly increases the system's ease of use and is convenient for users. The conference scheduling module 22 is mainly responsible for scheduling conference resources. The conference reservation module 20 is mainly responsible for reservation and calculation of conference resources, and ensures that resources of the MCU of the conference are sufficient. Preferably, in order to implement cascading of conferences (which may also be referred to as cascading of MCUs, because each conference corresponds to one MCU respectively), the following processing needs to be performed in advance: (1) The conference scheduling module determines an MCU to which each terminal belongs and a predetermined MCU cascading relationship;

(2) The conference scheduling module adds each terminal to multiple conference packets according to a predetermined MCU cascade relationship. The above processing will be described in detail below. In the preferred implementation process, the following preparations are required:

(1) Defining the MCU to which each terminal belongs, that is, it is clear on which MCU each terminal is called, and the E1 terminal must be called on the connected MCU, and the IP terminal needs to configure the terminal prefix of the MCU;

(2) Configure the master-slave cascading relationship between the MCUs to be cascaded. Note that: The master-slave cascading relationship cannot generate loops. It needs to be a tree structure. For details, see Table 1. Table 1 An example of a cascading relationship. Table 1

 The primary port number and the secondary port number in Table 1 are the expansion port information. In the specific implementation process, the conference scheduling module adds the expansion port corresponding to the expansion port information to each conference.

(3) Adding the terminal to the conference group according to the established master-slave cascade relationship, wherein the created conference group structure should be a tree structure, which is described below in conjunction with FIG. 3. Figure 3 is a schematic illustration of a grouping tree in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. According to the established MCU master-slave cascading relationship, the terminal may be added to each conference group, and the created packet structure is a tree structure, wherein the relationship between the terminal and the grouping may be that the same group only includes the terminal on the same MCU. It is also possible to include terminals of different MCUs in the same group. As shown in FIG. 3, the packet structure includes a five-level packet, which extends from the primary packet to the fifth-level packet to form a dome structure.

(4) When a meeting needs to be called, add the required groupings to the meeting. Preferably, the conference scheduling module is further configured to split the conference packet into one or more conferences according to the MCU included in each conference packet. Specifically, each conference corresponds to one MCU. The relationship between the terminal and the packet included in the conference may be that the same packet only includes the terminal on the same MCU, or the terminal that includes different MCUs in the same packet, etc. In the preferred implementation process, each terminal is added to multiple The meeting group includes at least one of the following:

(1) ^! The terminal corresponding to one MCU is added to the same conference group; for the conference split method in this case, see FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a conference splitting method when a terminal on the same MCU is added to a packet according to an example of the present invention. As shown in Figure 4, each grouped terminal belongs to a unique MCU. It only needs to split each group into a conference conf, and then only query the cascading relationship between the upper and lower layers. The upper layer is The main and lower layers are grouped as slaves.

( 2 ) ^! The terminals corresponding to one MCU are added to different conference groups. For the conference split method in this case, refer to Figure 5. Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a conference splitting method when terminals on the same MCU are added to different packets according to an example of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, if the terminals of the upper and lower layers are all on the same MCU, if the terminal in the packet is an IP terminal, the conference scheduling module 22 defaults that the two packets are cascaded by IP, and two are automatically created. The IP expansion ports are assigned to the respective terminals. In this case, the conference reservation module 20 is not required to find the cascading relationship; however, this scheme does not allow the two packets to be cascaded in the E1 manner, because the E1 mode needs to be in the configured cascading relationship. Find in , and the same MCU is not allowed to establish a cascading relationship. It can be seen that, in the preferred implementation process, the conference scheduling module 22 is further configured to automatically create an IP cascade interface and allocate the terminal to each terminal included in each conference when the conference corresponds to the same MCU.

(3) Add terminals corresponding to different MCUs into the same conference group. For the conference splitting method in this case, please refer to FIG. 6. 6 is a schematic diagram of a conference splitting method when a terminal on a different MCU according to an example of the present invention is added to a packet. As shown in Figure 6, the upper and lower layers are group 1 (confl), conference 2 (conf2); and there are two terminals on the different MCUs (MCU1, MCU2) in the confl; at this point, the confl is followed. The MCU of the terminal belongs to the two sub-conference subconfl, subconf2; find the master-slave cascade relationship between MCU1 and MCU2; if it is found that MCU1 is the main conference, then MCU1 is used as the main MCU of confl, which is used to cascade with the main MCU of the upper and lower layers. Similarly, the lower packet conf2 is split into two sub-conferences subconG and subconf4; while MCU3 is the master between the two MCUs, then MCU3 acts as The MCU is cascaded with the upper and lower layers. At this point, after the split conference is completed, the split cascading relationship is: MCU1 is cascaded with MCU2; MCU1 is cascaded with MCU3, and MCU3 is cascaded with MCU4. That is, the cascading between the upper and lower level packets is implemented by cascading the main MCUs in each group. It should be noted that, in the above three different modes, how does the conference scheduling module split a large conference into sub-conferences? How to determine the MCU master-slave cascading relationship between sub-conferences is particularly important, otherwise it may lead to conferences. Cascading logic errors can't achieve the desired effect. 7 is a flow chart of a cascading method of a multipoint control unit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7, the cascading method of the multipoint control unit includes the following processing: Step S702: The conference reservation module reserves resources of a multipoint control unit (MCU) corresponding to multiple conferences; Step S704: If multiple sub conferences correspond to different The MCU, the conference reservation module queries the cascading relationship between the MCUs corresponding to the conferences in the predetermined MCU cascading relationship, and sends the cascading relationship between the MCUs to the conference scheduling module. Step S706: The cascading relationship corresponding to the cascading relationship that the conference scheduling module will find. The port is added to each meeting. The above mentioned cascade ports include, but are not limited to, dedicated line cascade ports and IP level interfaces. Specifically, the dedicated line cascade port can be further divided into: a high-definition cascade interface and an EI cascade interface. By using the above cascading method, automatic cascading of conferences of multiple MCUs can be realized, which greatly increases the ease of use of the system, facilitates user use, and effectively improves the user experience. In a preferred implementation process, in step S702, the conference scheduling module summons a conference in the form of adding a packet, and each packet may have a terminal belonging to a different MCU; the conference scheduling module splits the conference into thousands of conferences according to the MCU. Then, the conference resource request message of the conference is sent to the conference reservation module. After receiving the resource request message of each conference, the conference reservation module performs resource freeze on all the conferences (that is, reserves the multi-point control unit MCU resources corresponding to the multiple conferences). After the conference reservation module freezes the resource, the conference scheduling module returns a message that the reservation is successful; In a preferred implementation, in step S704, the conference scheduling module instructs the conference reservation module to calculate a cascade relationship; the conference reservation module queries the database according to the cascade relationship of the MCU to which the conference belongs, if a corresponding cascade is found between the two MCUs. Line, the cascading line is split into a pair of cascade ports to inform the conference scheduling module. If the cascading line is not found, an error is returned. In the preferred implementation, in step S706, the conference scheduling module adds the calculated cascading port to each conference that has been successfully reserved, and the cascading port is connected. The automatic cascading of the meeting is realized. Preferably, if the conference corresponds to the same MCU, the foregoing method may further include the following process: the conference scheduling module automatically creates an IP cascade interface, and adds (assigns) to the terminal included in each conference. Preferably, after adding the cascade port, the MCU uses resources to hold each conference. It can be seen that, by using the method of the present invention, it is not necessary to hold a conference multiple times on each MCU when cascading conferences are held, and only one convening can realize automatic cascading of conferences of multiple MCUs, which greatly increases the system's ease. Sexuality improves the user experience. Preferably, before performing step S702, the following processing may be further included: the conference scheduling module splits the conference packet into one or more conferences according to the MCU included in each conference packet. Preferably, before the split conference grouping, the following processing may also be included:

(1) The conference scheduling module determines the MCU to which each terminal belongs and the cascade relationship of the predetermined MCU;

(2) The conference scheduling module adds each terminal to multiple conference packets according to a predetermined MCU cascade relationship. Wherein, adding each terminal into multiple conference packets includes at least one of the following:

(1) ^! A terminal corresponding to an MCU is added to the same conference group. For the conference splitting method in this case, refer to FIG. 4, and details are not described herein again.

( 2 ) ^! Terminals that share the same MCU are added to different conference packets. For the conference splitting method in this case, please refer to Figure 5, which is not mentioned here.

(3) Add terminals corresponding to different MCUs into the same conference group. For the conference splitting method in this case, refer to FIG. 6 , and details are not described herein again. The above preferred implementation process will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. Figure 8 is a flow diagram of a cascading method of a multipoint control unit in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8, the cascading method of the multipoint control unit according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes the following processing: Step S802: The conference scheduling module splits multiple packets into multiple conferences (for the split method, refer to FIG. 4 to The description in FIG. 6;), sending an application resource freeze request for each conference to the conference reservation module; Step S804: The conference reservation module searches the database, and the resource allocation algorithm calculates whether the resources of each conference are sufficient. If yes, step S706 is performed. Otherwise, the conference fails to be held; Step S806: The conference reservation module replies that the resource freeze is successful, that is, the conference reservation is successful; the conference scheduling module instructs the conference reservation module to calculate the cascade interface information; Step S808: The conference reservation module receives the message according to each conference The master-slave cascading relationship between the MCUs is located, and the pre-configured MCU master-slave cascading relationship is found. After finding the master-slave cascading relationship between the two MCUs, it is split into two cascade ports. Returning to the conference scheduling module; Step S810: The conference scheduling module separately invites (converses) the two cascade interfaces to the conference to which they belong; Step S812: determining whether the invitation is successful; Step S814: If the invitation is successful, automatic cascading of each conference is implemented, that is, the conference including multiple MCUs is successfully convened. Note that: When the conference scheduling module calls two expansion ports, you still need to apply for resources to the conference reservation module again. After the conference request module successfully requests the resources, the cascade interface can be successfully added. 9 is a schematic diagram of the cascading method shown in FIG. 8. As shown in FIG. 9, the cascading method of the multipoint control unit includes the following processing: Step S902: The conference scheduling module splits multiple packets into multiple conferences ( For the splitting method, refer to the description in FIG. 4 to FIG. 6;), send an application resource freeze request for each conference to the conference reservation module; Step S904: The conference reservation module searches the database, and the resource allocation algorithm calculates whether the resources of each conference are Sufficient, if sufficient, the resource is successfully frozen, that is, the reservation is successful; Step S906: After receiving the message that the resource is frozen successfully, the conference scheduling module summons all the conferences on each MCU, and instructs the conference reservation module to calculate the cascade. Information Step S908: After receiving the message, the conference reservation module searches for the master-slave cascading relationship of the MCU in advance according to the master-slave cascading relationship between the MCUs of the conferences, and finds the master-slave cascading relationship between the two MCUs. , it is split into two cascade ports and sent back to the conference scheduling module. Step S910: The conference scheduling module separately collects the two cascade ports into the conference to which they belong, thus realizing the automatic level of each conference. Union. Note that: When the conference scheduling module calls two expansion ports, you still need to apply for resources to the conference reservation module again. After the conference request module successfully requests the resources, the cascade interface can be successfully added. In summary, with the above-mentioned embodiments provided by the present invention, it is not necessary to hold a conference multiple times on each MCU when cascading conferences are held, and only one session is required, and automatic cascading of conferences of multiple MCUs can be realized, forming a pair. User-transparent automatic cascading conferences greatly increase the ease of use of the system and are convenient for users. And after the conference is held, terminals on all different MCUs can be managed from one portal. Obviously, those skilled in the art should understand that the above modules or steps of the present invention can be implemented by a general-purpose computing device, which can be concentrated on a single computing device or distributed over a network composed of multiple computing devices. Alternatively, they may be implemented by program code executable by the computing device, such that they may be stored in the storage device by the computing device and, in some cases, may be different from the order herein. The steps shown or described are performed, or they are separately fabricated into individual integrated circuit modules, or a plurality of modules or steps are fabricated as a single integrated circuit module. Thus, the invention is not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software. The above are only the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and changes can be made to the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the scope of the present invention are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

Claim A conference cascading method applied to a conference television system, including:  The conference reservation module reserves the multi-point control unit MCU resources corresponding to the plurality of conferences; if the plurality of conferences correspond to different MCUs, the conference reservation module queries the MCUs in the predetermined MCU cascade relationship between the MCUs corresponding to the conferences. Cascade relationship, and sent to the conference scheduling module;  The conference scheduling module adds the cascade port corresponding to the discovered cascading relationship to each of the conferences. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, if the conference corresponds to the same MCU, the method further includes:  The conference scheduling module automatically creates an IP cascade port and adds it to each terminal included in the conference. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein, after adding the cascade port, the method further comprises: the MCU convening each of the conferences by using the resource. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein before the conference reservation module reserves the MCU resource, the method further includes:  The conference scheduling module splits the conference packet into one or more conferences according to the MCU included in each conference packet. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein before splitting the conference packet, the method further includes:  The conference scheduling module determines an MCU to which each terminal belongs and the predetermined MCU cascading relationship;  The conference scheduling module is located in the predetermined MCU cascading relationship, and each of the terminals is added to a plurality of the conference packets. 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein adding each of the terminals to a plurality of the conference packets comprises at least one of the following: Adding the terminal corresponding to the same MCU to the same conference group; Add the terminals corresponding to the same MCU to different conference groups;  Terminals corresponding to different MCUs are added to the same conference group. 7. A conference cascading system for use in a conference television system, also including:  The conference reservation module is configured to reserve resources of the multi-point control unit MCU corresponding to the plurality of conferences. When the plurality of conferences correspond to different MCUs, query the MCUs in the predetermined MCU cascade relationship between the MCUs corresponding to the conferences. The cascading relationship is sent to the conference scheduling module. The conference scheduling module is configured to add a cascading port corresponding to the cascading relationship found by the conference reservation module to each of the conferences. 8. The system according to claim 7, wherein  The conference scheduling module is further configured to automatically create an IP cascade port and allocate the terminal to each terminal included in the conference when the conference corresponds to the same MCU. 9. The system according to claim 7 or 8, wherein  The conference scheduling module is further configured to split the conference packet into one or more conferences according to the MCU included in each conference packet. 10. The system according to claim 7 or 8, wherein  The conference scheduling module is further configured to determine an MCU to which each terminal belongs and the predetermined MCU cascading relationship, and add each of the terminals to a plurality of the conference packets according to the predetermined MCU cascading relationship.