On the Problem of Specifying the Number of Floors for a Voice-Only Conference on Packet Networks

Absfrcrcf Voice Confenneing is an essential block of any multimedia system used for collaborative work. In a collaborative environment Floor ComoI is an important issue tbat is dealt by many; yet r i n g the number offloors is an open problem. In an audio conference, mixing streams from too many concurrent speakers degrades the voice quality. Therefore setting an upper bound for the number of streams woors) tbat may be mixed is sine qua non for providing quality conferencing service. In this paper we address the problem of setting the upper bound on number of floors for a system meant to support concurrent multi-party audio sessions on top of IP multicasting. A measure called “Loudness Number“ tbat is used to manage the number of floors is briefly outlined to tbe extent of making this paper selfcontained. Our implementation at a functional level on a campuswide network of Window& systems has yielded satisfactory performance.