An ISDN multimedia conference bridge

An architecture is presented for a network-based multimedia conference bridge. The bridge is attached to a central office switch or PBX as an adjunct processor. The basic functions of the bridge are conference management, voice bridging, packet data multicast, and circuit data multicast. By providing point-to-multipoint data services, the conference bridge addresses a lack in the standard services provided on the integrated services digital network (ISDN) and enables the terminal equipment to utilize the limited bandwidth of the ISDN basic rate interface more efficiently. The system was based on the networking requirements of the Rapport multimedia conferencing system and is primarily intended to support multiparty multimedia conferencing, but is also suitable as a general purpose platform for many other applications or enhanced services. In addition to a general architecture, a specific implementation is described.<>