Abstract: There is provided an information management apparatus which can make it impossible to read out data recorded on a write-once type recordable optical disk as required and the usefulness thereof is enhanced. When recorded data is destroyed on the write-once type recordable optical disk, data modulated by a modulation system of the same run length restriction as run length restriction of a modulation system used for recording data is overwritten and recorded, data is overwritten and recorded by use of patterns in which the frequency of occurrence of spaces of the longest code is higher than the frequency of occurrence of the modulation system used for recording data, or data is overwritten and recorded by use of successive patterns of the shortest code in the run length restriction of the modulation system used for recording data.

Abstract: In a method for recording information on an information recording medium having a data recording area for storing user data and a test area used for test recording by a recording apparatus, it is detected whether the test area is unusable when executing the test recording. The test recording is executed in the test area when the test area is detected not to be unusable, or executed in the data recording area when detected to be unusable. Management information relating to the test recording executed in the data recording area is recorded in a predetermined area. Hence, it is possible to eliminate a limit of number of times of test recording which depends on the size of the test recording area.

Abstract: A write-once read-many information recording medium is provided, which is capable of easily searching for a latest DDS and a latest defect list. At least one disc management working area is sequentially allocated in a predetermined direction on the write-once read-many information recording medium of the present invention. The latest defect list and the latest DDS are provided in a recorded disc management working area neighboring a border between the recorded disc management working area and an unrecorded disc management working area, where the latest defect list precedes the latest DDS in the predetermined direction.

Abstract: An information storage apparatus records, reproduces and/or erases information with respect to a recording medium. The apparatus includes a servo error generation detector for detecting a generation of a servo error based on at least one of servo signals including a focus error signal and a tracking error signal which are derived from output signals of a light receiving element, and a data recording resuming section for temporarily interrupting a data recording with respect to the recording medium, temporarily turning OFF a servo and then turning ON the servo again, to thereafter synchronize recording data to recorded data already recorded on the recording medium, and resume recording of the recording data continuing without a discontinuity to an end of the recorded data recorded immediately before the interruption of the data recording, when the generation of the servo error is detected while recording data on the recording medium.

Abstract: An information recording technique for forming a recording mark with a multi-pulse sequence, which is increased by one pulse with an irradiation power Pw for every increase of 2T in a temporal length nT of the recording mark is provided. Particularly, this technique realizes a recording strategy that is simple in its configuration but is capable of improving the consistency of mark shapes in forming the recording marks when the value n of the temporal length nT is an odd number. More specifically, when n is an odd number and n?7, a period from the fall of a first pulse to the fall of a second pulse is set to 2.5 T and a period corresponding to a last pulse is set to (2+?1o)T where the value of ?1o is optimized within a range of 0<?1o?1. In this way, the multi-pulse sequence can be adjusted from the front pulse side and the rear pulse side so that an overall consistency can be realized in the mark shape upon recording the mark.

Abstract: A method for generating a hologram on a disc surface provides for the use of calibration spots burned onto a disc with an accuracy greater than one half wavelength of light.

Abstract: An optical pickup apparatus comprises: a first light source; a second light source; a third light source; and an objective optical element. The objective optical element comprises at least two areas comprising first and second optical path difference providing structures. A third light flux from the third light source passing the first optical path difference providing structure forms first and second best focuses. The third light flux passing the objective optical element forms a spot comprising a central spot portion; an intermediate spot portion; and a peripheral spot portion. The central spot portion is used for recording and/or reproducing information for a third optical disk, and the intermediate and peripheral spot portions are not used for recording and/or reproducing information for the third optical disk. The peripheral spot portion is formed on the third optical disk by the third light flux through the second optical path difference providing structure.

Abstract: An optical pickup projects laser beams having the first to the third wavelengths, in response to the type of a recording medium which is an object to which recording or reproduction is to be performed, and reflecting light from the recording medium is received by a light-detecting element. In order to reduce the sizes of the optical pickup, light of the second and the third wavelengths is generated by a single dual-wavelength light source, and reflecting light of all the wavelengths is to be received by the single light-detecting element. A hologram element giving different optical effects to light of each wavelength is arranged between the light irradiating means and the light-detecting element. Thus, appropriate information recording and reproduction can be performed by using light of each wavelength.

Abstract: An optical head is provided that increases the light utilization efficiency and that can be adapted to high-speed recording and double-layer disks. A beam-shaping lens that shapes an elliptical beam emitted from a light source into a substantially circular beam has a pair of cylindrical surfaces that are curved in the same direction. The cylindrical surface that is closer to the light source is an aspherical surface, and the cylindrical surface that is closer to the light source is a spherical surface. Thus, an optical head is obtained, with which aberrations can be kept low, even when the beam-shaping magnifying power is about a factor 2.

Abstract: The invention relates to a data-recording device comprising conductive microtips and to the production method thereof. According to the invention, the microtip comprises one end which is intended to be brought into electrical contact with a recording medium. Moreover, the microtip comprises a longitudinal conducting core having an essentially constant cross-section. In addition, the microtip is surrounded by a sheath of non-conducting material, such that the free ends of the core and the sheath are level at the end of the microtip. The cross-section of the sheath can diminish towards the end of the microtip, e.g. such as to form a truncated-cone-shaped part. The core can comprise a carbon nanotube. Furthermore, a multitude of microtips can be disposed in the form of a network, the ends thereof generating an essentially-flat common surface. The inventive method comprises an abrasion step.

Abstract: An information storage medium and a method and apparatus recording data to the information storage medium, the information storage medium having a write pattern for recording data, the write pattern including at least one pulse and a number of the at least one pulse being determined depending on a length of a recording mark. This makes it possible to record data using a write pattern having an optimal number of pulses, thereby preventing degradation in jitter characteristics due to residual heat or heat build-up caused by the use of unnecessary pulses even during high speed recording.

Abstract: A recording medium has a recording layer capable of be performed in recording or reproducing of information with light irradiation and carried with a substrate. The recording medium includes a guide layer having guide tracks each followed by a light beam spot focused from an objective lens through the recording layer, the guide tracks disposed at a first pitch. The recording medium includes a guide track transfer region provided on the guide layer and having at least one line of a track arranged in parallel between the guide tracks adjacent to each other in the extending direction of the guide track so as to be in a direction perpendicular to the guide track within a range shorter than that of the guide track.

Abstract: The invention relates to a novel methodology and apparatus for clock-offset compensation and common-phase offset correction in Frequency Division Multiplexing based wireless local area network (WLAN) environment, such as an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) environment. A curve fit, such as a threshold-based, least mean squares (LMS) fit of phase of the pilot sub-carriers in each OFDM symbol is used to estimate and counteract the rotation of the data sub-carriers due to residual frequency offset, low frequency phase noise, and clock offset. The invention is particularly well suited to wireless channels with multipath where pilots typically undergo frequency-selective fading. The thresholding LMS is implemented in a hardware-efficient manner, offering cost advantages over a weighted-LMS alternative. Additionally, the invention uses a unique phase-feedback architecture to eliminate the effects of phase wrapping, and avoid the need to refine channel estimates during packet reception.

Abstract: Channel estimation techniques are provided for a receiver of a wireless communication system using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), including legacy 802.11a and various extended rate systems. Training signals are received from one or more receive antennas. An estimated channel impulse response is computed from the received training signals by reference to a training sequence. The estimated channel impulse response is truncated in the time domain based on channel power and noise data. Channel response tracking techniques may also be implemented to correct for variations in channel response over the transmission time of a packet.

Abstract: A preamble for an OFDM signal synchronizes (104) and estimates (106) the sub-channels with only one code. One polyphase code sequence is used repeatedly for the preamble. The preamble is spread out over the bandwidth, which is the same as an OFDM symbol in the frequency domain and has good autocorrelation characteristics in the time domain. All OFDM signals are added with this preamble at the beginning of the OFDM signal and transmitted on the channel at a transmitter (50). At the receiving end, the receiver (100) first does the autocorrelation process to find out a peak value for synchronization in the time domain. Then, since the polyphase code is known at the receiver, the signal to noise ratio for each sub-carrier is calculated in the frequency domain and smoothed using the normal (Gaussian) distribution to provide the channel estimation. Since the synchronization and channel estimation are processed with a single preamble, the overhead for these two functions is significantly reduced.

Abstract: A control system for a communication network stores a plurality of fault recovery plans that are respectively associated with a plurality of links. The control system processes a first control signal from the communication network indicating that one of the links has a fault, and in response, identifies one of the fault recovery plans that is associated with the one link having the fault and implements the one fault recovery plan. The control system receives a second control signal from the communication network indicating network information, and in response, recalculates the fault recovery plans. The recalculated fault recovery plans implement link-based fault recovery, sub-path based fault recovery, and path-based fault recovery. The recalculated fault recovery plans group links constituents into groups by QoS requirements and assign the groups to back-up routes based on the QoS requirements and the performance of the back-up routes.

Abstract: Improved network design techniques are provided. More particularly, the invention provides network design techniques that support fast restoration. In one aspect of the invention, a technique for designing a protection capacity to be reserved in a network comprises the following steps/operations. Link capacities associated with a network topology and existing working traffic in the network are obtained. Capacity partitions are determined for links in the network topology. Each of at least a portion of the capacity partitions comprise a protection capacity portion and a working capacity portion that equals or exceeds the existing working traffic on a corresponding link, such that upon a failure on the link, the working traffic on the link is rerouted over a pre-provisioned detour path using the protection capacity portion on one or more links on the detour path. Further, the capacity partition determination step/operation substantially guarantees protection for existing working traffic in the network.

Abstract: A method to provide high availability in network elements using distributed architectures. The method employs multiple software components that are distributed across data/forwarding plane and control plane elements in a network element. The software components in the data/forwarding plane include active and standby components. Components in the control plane a re provided to communicate with the components in the data/forwarding plane. A keep-alive messaging mechanism is used to monitor operation of the various elements in the network element. Upon detection of a failure to a hardware or software component, the data/forwarding plane and/or control plane elements are reconfigured, as applicable, to replace a failed active component with a corresponding standby component. This enables the network element to be reconfigured in a manner that is transparent to other network elements, and provided high availability for the network element.

Abstract: The present invention provides for a computer network method and system that applies “hysteresis” to an active queue management algorithm. If a queue is at a level below a certain low threshold and a burst of packets arrives at a network node, then the probability of dropping the initial packets in the burst is recalculated, but the packets are not dropped. However, if the queue level crosses beyond a hysteresis threshold, then packets are discarded pursuant to a drop probability. Also, according to the present invention, queue level may be decreased until it becomes less than the hysteresis threshold, with packets dropped per the drop probability until the queue level decreases to at least a low threshold. In one embodiment, an adaptive algorithm is also provided to adjust the transmit probability for each flow together with hysteresis to increase the packet transmit rates to absorb bursty traffic.

Abstract: There is disclosed a method and a device of method of dynamic ARQ windows management in a network for controlling data link transmission. The method comprises an ARQ management entity selecting a given operational control mode, and a transmitter sending one or more PDUs of a given data link to a receiver. The receiver stores received PDUs in a shared memory. A receiver ARQ instance sends back corresponding ARQ-ACK message including a specific information comprising selected operational control mode and/or a flow control data. It further removes acknowledged PDUs from the shared memory when delivering them to an upper layer. The transmitter ARQ instance continues or stops PDUs transmission upon reception of the ARQ-ACK message, based on the specific information comprised therein.

Abstract: A communications apparatus for switching among different interfaces includes a switch unit. The switch unit includes a main switch for switching data of a fixed length and an interface having a first buffer for an input of the main switch and a second buffer for an output of the main switch.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for admission control in a communication system. An Access Network (AN) element determines available resources. When available resources are sufficient to support the requirements of a requested application flow, the AN admits the application flow. The AN periodically, and on trigger events, updates a measure of available resources. The admission control may operate in coordination with a scheduler applying a compensation factor to each flow type, and a compensation factor for aggregate flows of a given user.

Abstract: A method and system for detecting orphaned CLS primitives in a fibre channel network having a fibre channel switch element coupled to an arbitrated loop is provided. The method includes, sending an OPN primitive to a switch element port's own AL_PA to open a connection with itself; and determining if a CLS primitive is received within a loop a latency period. If a CLS primitive is received within the latency period then the CLS primitive is classified as an orphan and the orphaned CLS primitive is removed by the switch element by enabling a firmware based removal feature. The switch element includes a port that arbitrates for the arbitrated loop ownership and sends an OPN primitive to its own AL_PA.

Abstract: A media gateway controller that includes an interface configured to receive a call request for a call from a communication device and transmit a control message for the call to the communication device. The media gateway controller also includes a processor configured to process the call request to determine an end point for the call, determine an end point state for the end point, and generate the control message indicating the end point state.

Abstract: Methods, apparatuses and systems directed to an aggregate bandwidth utilization control scheme including fair share bandwidth allocation and dynamic allocation of bandwidth in response to detected traffic utilization. In one implementation, the present invention includes a weighted, fair share aggregate bandwidth allocation mechanism that dynamically responds to observed bandwidth utilization to provide unutilized or excess bandwidth to flows and partitions that require it. In another implementation, the present invention features a weighted fair share allocation scheme for hierarchical partition configurations. In other implementations, the present invention provides a per-flow target rate assignment mechanism that prevents spiraling decline of data flow rates.

Abstract: A method of exchanging signalling information for optimising a rate control scheme in a mobile network, wherein data packets are transmitted over the network from a sender to a receiver employing the rate control scheme with a sending rate which can be adapted using feedback information from the receiver, comprising the step of exchanging PDP context information between the receiver and the network, signalling PDP context information to the sender; and adapting the sending rate using the signal PDP context information. The invention further relates to a corresponding communication system as well as to a sender and a receiver for use therein.

Abstract: A data packet switching node that temporarily stores data packets received from at least one source network adapter and transmits them to at least one destination network adapter comprises a data packet flow control system to control the data packet flow. The data packet flow control system comprises identifier to determine the at least one destination adapter of each received data packet. Then, flow control logic coupled to the storage allow computing a data packet flow value representing the traffic for the at least one destination adapter. The data packet flow value is transmitted simultaneously to the at least one source network adapter and to the at least one destination network adapter each time a data packet for the at least one destination network adapter is stored into the storage.

Abstract: A method of operating a network node in PIM-SM (Protocol Independent Multicast-Sparse Mode) is disclosed. In one embodiment, a Rendezvous Point Tree (RPT) to Shortest Path Tree (SPT) switch over process is initiated after the packet flow rate of the RPT data stream is compared against a predetermined threshold using a reverse rate limiting technique. If the packet flow rate of the RPT data stream exceeds the threshold, further analysis can be performed to decide whether the RPT to SPT switch over process should be initiated. Otherwise, if the packet flow rate does not exceed a predetermined threshold, the network node continues to receive multicast packets via the RPT until the predetermined threshold is reached.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for throttling event messages to be sent to a network management system (NMS), so as to avoid overflow of element management system (EMS) buffers. Three states are defined for buffers within a proxy: low, high, and full. Changes between states occur as the fill-level of the buffers crosses thresholds. When the proxy buffers are in the low state, the event logger of an EMS forwards all event messages to the proxy, which are then forwarded to the NMS. When the proxy buffers are in the high state, the EMS only forwards high priority messages to the proxy. Low priority messages are stored within the EMS. When the proxy buffers are in a full state, the EMS does not forward any messages to the proxy. In this way, event messages are throttled, thereby reducing the frequency of network reconciliation, in a way which does not further burden the Qs channel process.

Abstract: A method and system enable optimization of trunk group design in a public switched telephone network (PSTN). A community of interest, including two end offices connected by a direct trunk and at least one tandem switch, is identified using out-of band signaling data collected from the PSTN. An application server interfaced to the PSTN determines whether traffic in the community of interest passes through the tandem switch during a predetermined time period. When traffic passes through the tandem switch, the application server further determines whether the direct trunk between the end offices experienced an overflow condition during the same predetermined time period. When the direct trunk did not experience an overflow condition, an exchange code associated with the traffic passing through the tandem switch is designated as a misrouted code. The misrouted code is flagged so that associated traffic is redirected through the direct trunk.

Abstract: A backpressure mechanism uses a TDM backpressure bus with each port card being assigned time slot. During its time slot, each ingress card/port writes on the bus the number of packets it transmitted to an egress ports during the last data refresh cycle. This information is read by the egress ports and used to compute current depth of the switch fabric output queues. In addition to information received from ingress cards, egress cards keep count of number of packets received from the appropriate switch fabric port and based on it estimate/calculate the current depth of the switch fabric output queue. Congestion states are calculated for all queues by comparing the queue depth with a respective threshold. Each egress card uses these congestion states to generate backpressure signals to ingress cards. Ingress card are using these signals to make decision whether to send or not traffic to destination egress card/port.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods and apparatus for handling Link State Packets (LSPs) sent between processing nodes within a computer network. At a first node, an LSP sent by a second node is received. The received LSP specifies connectivity information regarding the second node. It is then determined whether one of two conditions is met: either the received LSP is an updated LSP even though it appears older and a corresponding stored LSP fails authentication, or the received LSP fails authentication and it appears newer. If it is determined that one of these conditions is met, as well as purging criteria, then updating procedures are then performed on the LSP information that is maintained by the first node, where the LSP information was originally obtained from a corresponding LSP sent by the second node.

Abstract: A method for detecting and correcting looping problems in a publish-subscribe messaging network is disclosed. The messaging network requires a token which uniquely identifies a node in this messaging network or universally unique in this messaging network. The messaging network maintains a list of Universally Unique Identifiers (UUID) as a metadata attached to each publish-subscribe message (“publication”). As a node forwards a publication to another node, it is required to append its own UUID to this list or discard the message if its UUID already is in the attached list. Several nodes could form a broker cooperative aggregate node and have a unique identifier for all the nodes in the cooperative if they have an internal mechanism for preventing publication looping.

Abstract: The specification describes techniques for evaluating important network performance parameters, for example, call set-up time, for private network-to-network (PNNI) interfaces. These performance parameters are used to determine the optimum size of the peer groups in the PNNI network. Both flat and multi-level networks may be designed using the methods described.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention relate to searching a mobile communication system (e.g., a cellular telephone network) for use of a network address (e.g., an Internet address). Embodiments of the invention have many advantages, as police or cellular service providers may be able to track or trace illegal Internet usage to a particular cellular telephone. For example, if a terrorist is communicating to other terrorists over the Internet, using his/her cellular telephone, the police may be able to associate the illegal Internet usage with the mobile telephone. Accordingly, in this example, the police may be able to locate the terrorists and detain him/her before they can cause harm to innocent individuals. One of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate other advantages of being able to search a mobile communication system for use of a network address.

Abstract: Gateway routers for real-time networks have the ability to collect delay, loss, and jitter statistics on a per-connection basis. It is possible to use this information not only to monitor the quality of individual voice calls and other real-time connections, but also to evaluate the overall performance of the underlying network. This paper describes a method for monitoring and managing the performance of a real-time data network that supports voice, video and other real-time services. In the described embodiments, the RTCP mechanisms of RTP for sender and receiver reporting be used to relay performance information to one or more network monitoring sites for analysis and interpretation. In addition, gateway routers are organized and managed within a hierarchy that allows the monitoring function to localize it view of network conditions within the hierarchy; and the monitoring of network performance can occur on various time scales.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions are provided by the present invention to automatically recover from a failed node concurrent maintenance operation. A control logic is provided to send a first test command to processors of a new node. If the first test command is successful, a second test command is sent to all processors or to the remaining nodes if nodes are removed. If the second command is successful, system operation is resumed with the newly configured topology with either nodes added or removed. If the response is incorrect or a timeout has occurred, the control logic restores values to the current mode register and sends a third test command to check for an error. A fatal system attention is sent to a service processor or system software if an error is encountered. If no error, system operation is resumed with previously configured topology.

Abstract: In an embodiment of the invention, the CTCS is configured to receive a correlation request for a first service session from a client device and process the correlation request to select a first traffic collection system (TCS) and a second TCS. The CTCS also generates a collection request and transmits the collection request for the first service session to the first TCS and the second TCS. The CTCS then receives a first collection response from the first TCS indicating first data for the first service session, and receives a second collection response from the second TCS indicating second data for the first service session. The CTCS then processes the first data and the second data to generate a correlation response and transfers the correlation response to the client device indicating the first and second data.

Abstract: Potential forwarding loops in bridged networks are detected. A switch monitors the movement of packet addresses in the forwarding table to different ports. If the port associated with an address changes multiple times in a short time duration, then a potential forwarding loop is detected, and a loop corrector is notified to take appropriate action to correct the problem, such as, but not limited to changing the state of a port to a blocking state or disabling an interface, etc. If there are multiple movements outside the short time duration, they may be correct movements adjusting to the actual reconfiguration of a network, and thus, these movements are effectively filtered out of consideration.

Abstract: A method for engineering traffic between an ingress router and an egress router of a packet network, whereby the traffic is scheduled within the ingress router in queues pertaining to different service classes, and whereby part of the traffic follows a dedicated tunnel between the ingress and egress routers, includes the step of provisioning of a tunnel queue dedicated to the part of the traffic intended to flow via the dedicated tunnel, for separately and temporarily storing the part of the traffic towards the dedicated tunnel, and a further step of shaping the part of the traffic towards the dedicated tunnel before entering the traffic tunnel. Further embodiments include the provisioning of a set of queues, pertaining to the different service classes, to one or more of these dedicated traffic tunnels, as well as the provisioning of associated shapers.

Abstract: A system and method for measuring quality of a data network and specifically through use of a client computer and a server computer communicating with each other, over the network, using a connection-less transmission protocol.

Abstract: In a method of detecting signaling information in a signal received in a wireless communication system, signaling information for a signal received in a subsequent time instant may be detected using an estimated value for the subsequent time instant. The estimated value for the subsequent time instant may be determined based on one or more measured parameters related to an estimated value for detecting signaling information in a current time instant.

Abstract: A system and method are described for selecting a service state using a configurable abstraction layer. A comparison is made between network parameters of a Network Performance Layer and network services of a Service Layer. Once network parameters are within a threshold for providing a given service, a state change can be made in the configuration parameters to suit the provided service.

Abstract: A communication apparatus includes a communication mode detecting unit and an IP address determining unit. The communication mode detecting unit detects whether a communication mode is a first wireless communication mode or a second wireless communication mode. The IP address determining unit (a) determines an IP address using first and second time out values if the communication mode detecting unit detects that the communication mode is the first wireless communication mode, and (b) determines an IP address using third and fourth time out values if the communication mode detecting unit detects that the communication mode is the second wireless communication mode. The first and third time out values are used for a first addressing method, and the second and fourth time out values are used for a second addressing method different from the first addressing method.

Abstract: A method and system for identifying optimal mapping of logical links to the physical topology of a network is provided. Upon obtaining one or more mapping options for mapping multiple logical links between two or more pairs of network nodes onto physical paths that are as at least relatively disjoint and a priority order of the network node pairs, the mapping options are correlated with the priority order of the network nodes to identify optimal mapping of logical links to the physical topology of a network.

Abstract: One embodiment disclosed relates to a method of operating a network switch to provide wireless redundancy in a network. A keep-alive control packet is periodically transmitting over a wireless link, wherein the keep-alive control packet has a destination MAC address being that of the other switch on the other side of the wireless link, and wherein the keep-alive control packet is specifically designated to be identified as a keep-alive type packet. The specific designation may be implemented by having a source MAC address comprising a predetermined reserved MAC address. A key portion of one embodiment is the detection of the nearest neighbor in a point-to-point connection without confusion with another device elsewhere in the network. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Abstract: Managing a multicast conference call includes receiving signals at a local endpoint participating in a multicast conference call with remote endpoints. The signals include a local signal associated with the local endpoint and remote signals, where each remote signal is associated with a remote endpoint. Metric ratings are determined, where each metric rating reflects an importance of a signal. The metric ratings include a local metric rating corresponding to the local signal and remote metric ratings, where each remote metric rating corresponds to a remote signal. The local metric rating and the remote metric ratings are compared, and a subset of signals is selected according to the comparison.

Abstract: When one of two IP telephones that are maintaining a call receives a TV camera connection request, the IP telephone obtains a URI of an IP TV camera service from a resource record of the opposing terminal. Then, the IP telephone delivers the URI of the IP TV camera service to an IP TV camera adaptor of its own IP telephone in order to make a video communication request. The resource record of the opposing terminal is associated with a telephone number of the opposing IP telephone, the record being obtained by connecting to a DNS server. The IP TV camera adaptor connects a call, via the IP telephone, to an IP TV camera adaptor of the opposing terminal, using the URI of the IP TV camera service of the opposing terminal and performs video image communication.

Abstract: Devices, softwares and methods generate, in real time, indexing metadata for select portions of a telephone conversation or conference. The indexing metadata is generated responsive to inputs received while the conversation is being recorded live. The inputs are either by a user pressing a soft key on a telephone device, or by a voice conference bridge determining who is the dominant speaker in a multi-party conference.

Abstract: A video conferencing terminal includes an encoder that receives a baseband audio signal and a baseband video signal and creates compressed audio packets and compressed audio-video packets. A network interface driver receives the compressed audio packets and the compressed audio-video packets, IP encapsulates the compressed audio packets and the compressed audio-video packets, transmits the IP packets onto an IGMP network. The network interface driver also requests audio packets and audio-video packets from the network and recovers compressed audio packets and compressed audio-video packets from the IP packets received from the network. A decoder receives compressed audio packets and compressed audio-video packets from the network interface driver and generates a baseband video signal and multiple baseband audio signals.