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Publication
FTDCS 1995
Conference paper
Centralized versus distributed schemes for videoconferencing
Abstract
Videoconferencing has become one of the major applications which is driving new computing and communication technologies. Solutions for the circuit switched and packet-based networks differ considerably. The H.320 ITU Standard has defined a solution for videoconferencing over N-ISDN. This standard advocates a centralized approach to multiparty conferencing based on a multipoint control unit (MCU). Various aspects of the H.320 standard are clearly reusable in packet-switched environments while others are not. In this paper we examine the differences between a centralized MCU multiparty conference approach and a distributed multiconference approach which leverages some of the capabilities of the packet-based networks. Each approach has distinct advantages and disadvantages. We discuss these and present a distributed Multimedia Multiparty Teleconferencing (MMT) system we have implemented.