Schemes for user-interest controlled video bandwidth adaptation in a collaborative workspace environment

In this paper, bandwidth-sharing schemes, controlled by user-interest, are presented as an approach to efficient use of resources in a collaborative workspace environment. Two schemes for group videoconferencing are presented and evaluated. Monitoring of user-behavior and message passing to adapt video bandwidth allocation to user needs are key features of both schemes, in which each user's client reports interest in other users to enable them to determine their relative importance. Experimental results using a prototype implementation to sample user-behavior show that one scheme is better suited for high, and the other for low bandwidth-limit scenarios. Measurements also show that the message passing does not add a substantial amount of bandwidth.