Endpoints are enabled to facilitate desktop and/or application sharing in enhanced communication systems using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) protocols by tunneling RDP packets through an Interactive Connection Establishment (ICE) channel built-in within the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), thus allowing RDP sessions to traverse Network Address Translators (NATs) or firewalls.

Tunneling of remote desktop sessions through firewalls

Systems and methods are provided for assigning and associating resources in a cloud computing environment. Virtual machines in the cloud computing environment can be assigned or associated with pools corresponding to users as dedicated, standby, or preemptible machines. The various states provide users with the ability to reserve a desired level of resources while also allowing the operator of the cloud computing environment to increase resource utilization.

Assignment of resources in virtual machine pools

A stream transport protocol supports realtime network communications between communicants operating on respective client network nodes (12, 14). The stream transport protocol supports remote management of client communication sessions, including provisioning of each pair of client network nodes (12, 14) with a respective session definition defining a respective peer-to-peer session over a network connection between the constituent client network nodes (12, 14) of the pair. The stream transport protocol has relatively low computational resource requirements so that realtime communications performance can be achieved using a wide range of computing devices and network connections that currently are available.

Managing network communications between network nodes and stream transport protocol

A computer implemented method is disclosed, the method including but not limited to detecting an event of interest in video conference data for a plurality of video conference participants and notifying an end user of the event of interest. A computer readable medium is also disclosed for containing a computer program for performing the method. A computer implemented method is also disclosed for receiving at an end user device, a notification of an event of interest in a video teleconference, the method including but not limited to receiving at an end user device from a notification indicating a detection of the event of interest in video conference data from the video teleconference for a plurality of video conference participants; and sending data from the end user device to the server requesting a transcription of comments from the speaker in video teleconference.

System and method for notification of events of interest during a video conference

Methods and apparatus for supporting customer-directed networking limits in distributed systems are disclosed. A client request is received via a programmatic interface, indicating a particular lower resource usage limit to be imposed on at least one category of network traffic at a particular instance of a network-accessible service. Resource usage metrics for one or more categories of network traffic at the particular instance are obtained. In response to a determination that resource usage at the particular instance has reached a threshold level, one or more responsive actions are initiated.

Centralized resource usage visualization service for large-scale network topologies

Architecture for a scalable, pluggable multi-party, and distributed multimedia conferencing. A centralized policy and control conferencing component allows the seamless plug-in of different distributed media components (e.g., data, audio/video, messaging) to accommodate client participation in a conference session. The centralized conference control component includes the following: a conference notification service for accepting subscriptions to the conference state and notifying subscribers about changes to that state; a conference policy and roster control service for storing and manipulating conference policy and rosters; a security service for user authorization/authentication based on user identity information; a scheduling service for conference scheduling; an allocation service for allocating the most available media component(s) for a conference session; and, an MCU management service for conference policy and roster management of the distributed media components.

Distributable, scalable, pluggable conferencing architecture

Described are embodiments directed at providing resilient services using architectures that have a number of failover features including the ability to handle failover of an entire data center. Embodiments include a first server pool at a first data center that provides client communication services. The first server pool is backed up by a second server pool that is located in a different data center. Additionally, the first server pool serves as a backup for the second server pool. The two server pools thus engage in replication of user information that allows each of them to serve as a backup for the other. In the event that one of the data centers fails, requests are rerouted to the backup server pool.

Providing resilient services

Concepts and technologies are described herein for a mechanism by which participants who have been invited to attend a conference event can provide authentication credentials to join the conference event via a console application. When an individual attempts to join a conference event via a console application, the individual is prompted to provide his or her authentication credentials to join the conference event. The console application may inherit the individual's permissions during the conference event.

Participant authentication and authorization for joining a private conference event

Concepts and technologies are described herein for a mechanism by which participants who have been invited to attend a conference event and who are physically present within a conference event environment, such as a meeting room, can provide authentication credentials to join the conference event via a conference event environment system. When an individual attempts to join a conference event via a conference event environment system, the individual is prompted to provide his or her authentication credentials to join the conference event via the conference event environment system to participate in the conference event. The conference event environment system may inherit the individual's permissions, such as in regards to whether or not the individual has been permitted to present content during the conference event. A conference event roster may be used to indicate that the individual has joined the conference via the conference event environment system.

Participant authentication and authorization for joining a private conference event via a conference event environment system

Scaling up and scaling out of a server architecture for large scale real-time applications is provided. A group of users may be provisioned by assigning them to a server pool and allotting them to a group. Grouped users help to reduce inter-server communication when they are serviced by the same server in the pool. High availability may be provided by choosing a primary server and one or more secondary servers from the pool to ensure that grouped users are serviced by the same server. Operations taken on the primary server are synchronously replicated to secondary servers so that when a primary server fails, a secondary server may be chosen as the primary for the group. Servers for multiple user groups may be load balanced to account for changes in either the number of users or the number of servers in a pool. Multiple pools may be paired for disaster recovery.

Vijay Kishen Hampapur Parthasarathy

Papers

Distributable, scalable, pluggable conferencing architecture

Providing resilient services

Participant authentication and authorization for joining a private conference event

Participant authentication and authorization for joining a private conference event via a conference event environment system

Scaling Up and Scaling Out of a Server Architecture for Large Scale Real-Time Applications