Network Conferencing Terms
RSVP - Resource Reservation Protocol
Unicast - One to one messaging
Multicast - One to many messaging
Notes:
--RTP and RSVP are new protocols that are slowly being adopted by equipment and software manufacturers. These are intended to improve the abilities of IP networks to handle streams of DVC data without their interruption by other network traffic.
--Unicast is standard point to point transmission of data. In a two person conference, unicast is as efficient as any other method.
--Multicast has become fairly prevalent in IP networks as a tool for a single source of data to transmit to multiple receivers. Multicast is useful in conferences of more than two people as a way of reducing network loads.
--Tunneling can refer to a method by which a conference with participants in one LAN can efficiently communicate with participants in another LAN. Multicast can be used in each LAN, with a unicast transmission between the gateways connecting the two LANs.
--MCU - A Multipoint Control Unit is used to mix audio and video from H.32x clients and repackage it into a single H.32x stream that is reflected back to those clients. This enables the point to point H.323 standard to support multipoint conferences.