| Abstract | At present, there are various videoconferencing frameworks, such as H.323, SIP, Internet Audio and Access Grid, which usually cannot directly interact with each other. Web Services have been proposed as a new way to produce modular Web-based components. So in this paper, we present a possible Web Service framework for an audio/video collaboration system. Under such framework, we can implement a collaboration system, which can support H.323, SIP, Access Grid in the same audio and video session. We describe our approach in terms of the clients, session servers and communication channels. We introduce an XML description XGSP for collaborative sessions which encompasses existing systems and allows for extensions to define richer environments. This paper illustrates the value of Web Services in providing an interoperability framework as well as providing a new platform for building general collaboration environments. In future papers, we will describe how this approach can be used to incorporate further collaboration models such as those like JXTA from the peer-to-peer realm and emerging powerful messaging infrastructure. It can also be extended to support further functionality like white boards and more general shared applications. |
