WO2001006745A1

WO2001006745A1 - A system for communicating messages, including audio data, over a network of computers in real time

Info

Publication number: WO2001006745A1
Application number: PCT/GB2000/002749
Authority: WO
Inventors: Neil Kenneth Gray; Ian Macdonald Green
Original assignee: Purple Voice Limited
Priority date: 1999-07-20
Filing date: 2000-07-18
Publication date: 2001-01-25
Also published as: GB2352357A; GB9916871D0

Abstract

A system for communicating messages over a network of computers in real time is described. The messages include broadcast audio or video data for delivery to multiple computers, and intercom audio or video data for delivery between computers. The system includes data storage means for storing the audio data from each broadcast message and from each intercom message, the data storage means also storing identification data for permitting a given broadcast or intercom message to be subsequently identified and its storage location determined. The broadcast data and the identification data are stored in a commonly accessible data storage means being connected to the network, and the intercom audio data are stored locally on the computers involved in a given intercom message. This provides an integrated solution to messaging which makes audit and recovery of a given message more efficient in terms of bandwidth usage.

Description

A SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATING MESSAGES, INCLUDING AUDIO DATA, OVER A NETWORK OF COMPUTERS IN REAL TIME

This invention relates to a system for communicating messages, including audio and/or video or other data, over a network of computers in real time, the data including broadcast data streams for delivery to multiple computers, and point-to-point intercom data streams for delivery between a plurality of individual comput ers Concomitant with the increased popularity of the Internet and intranets in recent years, there has been interest in combining digital data transmission with voice and other audio program content, including Internet radio, internet telephony, voice-mail, and unified messaging. In many businesses, such as financial dealing rooms, each person has a networked computer on their desk in addition to a telephone connected to a telecommunications system. An object of the present invention is to provide an integrated solution to messaging which makes audit and recovery of a given message more efficient.

A known method of integrating a personal computer network and a internal telephone system using a packet switching protocol has been developed and is known as the EtherPhone™. This system is described in passing in US 5,862,134, which also describes a system which allows calls to persons not connected to the network. These systems have the drawback that archiving of messages and providing a reliable audit trail for such messages is difficult using such systems. Most recording facilities assume point to point communications and are not designed to manage point to point and point to multi point communications with a seamless audit trail.

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a system for communicating messages, including audio and/or video or other data, over a network of computers in real time as specified in claim 1. This provides an integrated solution to messaging which makes audit and recovery of a given message more efficient in terms of bandwidth usage. Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings, in which:-

Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a known telephone system

Figure 2 shows a block diagram of a client-server network, and Figure 3 shows a system according to the present invention.

When voice messages are recorded using a normal telephone exchange, an arrangement shown in Figure 1 may be employed, in which a voice recorder (1) capable of recording multiple simultaneous voice messages is connected directly to the central exchange (2), to which is also connected a plurality of telephones (3). For internal communications, telephone calls play less of a role. In dealing rooms there are three other forms of real time communications. They are: Broadcast - point to many simplex communications, this is typically used to transfer information - e.g. "Pepsi have bought 3 extra bottling plants in the UK their share price is expected to go unchanged" Intercom - typically point to point full duplex calls over ambient speakers, though typically the information is half duplex or question and answer - e.g. "What is the Dollar Franc rate?" or "Fred your visitor is in reception?"

Hoot and Holler - multipoint to multipoint conference, where again information is being disseminated and multiple people within a company will wish to communication to a large number of listeners around the world on the same subject. This is typically product related.

Although today most of the communication is simply voice only, the ability to communicate with the addition of real time video and associated data (files, research, documentation) is desirable. In many markets, especially financial trading, it is important that there is an audit trail of who heard what, who said what and when it was said. Furthermore, most of the communications internal to a company have in the past been restricted either on a site basis or to main offices - with the evolution of networks, mobile communications, and ISDN the availability of said communications scales up to encompass every employee wherever they are in the world - hence the need for comprehensive audit trails. It is also expected that, with network ubiquity, the type of communication used within a company will encompass their clients as well without the restrictions imposed by the telephone.

In order to implement efficient communications a central sever is used with Broadcasts and Hoots to combine any incoming voice and data streams and routes the combined streams to intended recipients. However, for intercom calls the most direct route is used to minimise delay and therefore the central servers are not used. Constructing a system which can implement recording of one or more hoots with simultaneous intercom capability between recipients is complex, and being able to keep track of all the voice messages to provide an audit trail (including intercom conversations) is problematic. In a conventional telephone exchange it is straightforward to keep track of all voice messages by recording all the active lines because they are all accessible in a single location.

One aspect of the present invention is to provide such an auditable voice messaging and message storage functionality in an otherwise conventional networked computer environment where the messages are not all accessible from a single point. An example of a network topology allowing this functionality is shown in Figure 2. This figure shows a network backbone (5), such as for example an Ethernet cable, coupled to a plurality of workstation computers (6) and a server (7). This is a typical example of a client-server architecture. With such a network topology it would be normal practice to have the server (7) control the data traffic in an analogous way to the central exchange (2) shown in Figure 1, with the workstation computers (6) acting in an analogous way to the telephones (3) in Figure 1. To generate an input to a broadcast or an existing hoot in a system as shown in Figure 2, each "push to talk" voice data stream (and any video or other data) is routed from the workstation to the server, which then broadcasts a combined hoot voice stream to predefined workstations. The server can conveniently store the combined stream for later replay. However, it is difficult to combine the functionality of broadcasts, hoots, intercom and data storage, with their differing requirements, as part of a secure auditable system. Although individual workstation computers could, in principle, set up point-to-point intercom sessions with each other, this is not consistent with an integrated central database of users which tracks call usage, security permissions, etc.. Neither is it satisfactory for all intercom messages to be passed via the server, because of increased network traffic and increased time delay. Minimum time delay is not so critical for a hoot or broadcast, as long as the information is heard or seen in almost real time, but optimised minimum delay is essential for two way voice communication.

According to the present invention, the communication system has a first server function that keeps track of permissions and usage and a second server function that combines voice streams or other data streams for broadcast and which provides storage means for storing the same data streams. The system also comprises a plurality of workstation computers each of which exchanges data on its intercom usage with the first server function, but which sends the intercom voice stream directly to the other workstation computer. Each workstation computer includes data storage means for storing the intercom voice stream for that particular workstation, such that the first server function is both able to keep track of intercom usage and subsequently to arrange for playback at any authorised point of any intercom message. The first and second server functions may be combined in a single server, or may be provided by separate servers. Figure 3 shows an embodiment of the invention in which both server functions are combined in a single server (10). This server has a part (11) which is allocated to store broadcast messages including audio data such as voice. The workstations (12) each have a data store (14) for storing intercom messages including audio data such as voice. It is within the scope of the present invention for each workstation to store any combination of its own outgoing and incoming intercom data streams. To reduce storage requirements, the two data streams may be combined, for example by summing the two channels and storing this summed data, or by using other forms of compression appropriate for the type of data. The system implements broadcasts and hoots as follows. A person at a workstation computer (12) authorised to send such a message provides data to a routing server (10), usually in the form of data packets. These packets are combined into a single audio data stream at the server, which then sends the data stream out to a given subset of the workstations as a broadcast message, and stores this data in part 11. The broadcast message is then replayed by all the workstations participating in that particular hoot.

If one of the workstations wants to replay an earlier part of the broadcast or hoot, or an earlier broadcast or hoot, the workstation requests the data from the server, which retrieves the data from its store 11 and sends the data to the workstation making the request. In practice, replays of this kind are relatively uncommon, so that this approach is much more efficient than storing the original broadcast message at each participating workstation computer. It also provides a solution to the problem of what to do about workstations that were unable to receive the original broadcast.

The system implements an intercom message as follows. An intercom link between two workstations is initiated by the client requesting the address of a recipient from the server, which logs which workstations are involved, when the link is established, and either the duration of the link or the time the link finishes. The subsequent real time data streams are sent directly from one workstation to the other. If the network topology happens to force the voice packets via the server, this is still within the scope of the invention, as the voice packets are not stored on the server. During the intercom link, each participating workstation locally records the voice channel (i.e. all the individual signals). This allows the conversation to be recovered in total even if one workstation subsequently fails or is tampered with. Non-voice data, such as for example time stamps and the IP address of the workstation(s) or possibly picture data, may also be recorded. The replay of an intercom message is authorised by the server, which allows access to the stored voice data on either one or all participating workstations. For the most common case where message replay is requested by a party to the intercom link, the stored voice data is retrieved locally, and therefore network bandwidth is not used. Broadcast messages are essentially one way communication, whilst intercom messages are essentially two way. To provide a conference call in which two way communication is required for more than two participants, it is possible to use either the broadcast message format (i.e. routing all the data streams through the server) or the intercom format but with more than two workstation computers communicating with one another at any given time. The system administrator may, for example, decide that conference calls with 3 participants will use the intercom format, and conference calls with 4 or more participants will use the broadcast format. Clearly the break point between the two methods can be chosen to be at any desired number of participants, depending on what number is most convenient or efficient for a given application.

To provide archiving, intercom voice data stored locally can be periodically uploaded from each workstation to a common archive storage means such as a server. This can be achieved most conveniently on a day or at a time when network usage is low, so that network performance is not adversely impacted by the transfer. In this scenario requests for replay of an intercom voice stream for the current day would be replayed using the topology of Figure 3, whilst occasional requests for replay of earlier messages would be handled by the archive server, depending upon how much storage has been designed into each workstation computer.

Claims

1. A system for communicating messages over a network of computers in real time, the messages including or consisting of audio and /or video or other data and comprising broadcast data streams for delivery to multiple computers, and point-to-point intercom data streams for delivery between individual computers, the system including data storage means for storing the data from each broadcast message and from each intercom message, the data storage means also storing identification data for permitting a given broadcast or intercom message to be subsequently identified and its storage location determined, the broadcast data and the identification data being stored in a commonly accessible data storage means being connected to the network, and the intercom data being stored locally on the individual computers involved in a given intercom message.

2. A system for communicating messages as claimed in claim 1, in which the identification data includes the time a given message was sent, who the message was sent to, the size or duration of the message, and the address in the system where the content of the message is stored.

3. A system for communicating messages as claimed in claim 2, in which the identification data includes who received the given message and when.

4. A system for cornmunicating messages as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the commonly accessible data storage means being connected to the network comprises a computer, such as for example a server.

5. A system for communicating messages as claimed in claim 4 in which the commonly accessible data storage means combines a plurality of audio and /or video data streams for broadcast using data packet switching protocols.

6. A system for communicating messages as claimed in any preceding claim in which messages broadcast whilst a given computer is not connected to the system, or whilst the person operating the given computer is not paying attention, is stored on the commonly accessible data storage means to be resent to the given computer at a future time.

7. A system for communicating messages as claimed in claims 1 - 5, in which a messages broadcast whilst a recipient is not paying attention is stored locally on the corresponding individual computer.

8. A system as claimed in any preceding claim in which the audio and/or video data comprise voice messages.