Applying User-behavior to Bandwidth Adaptations in Collaborative Workspace Applications and Video Conferencing

A bandwidth-sharing scheme for group video conferencing is presented in this paper. The key features of the scheme are the monitoring of user behavior and message passing, which are used by each client in order to identify and report their interest in other group members. Each video sender operates on the information about other users’ interest in order to adjust the sender’s own frame rate, resolution, and ultimately bandwidth consumption in an attempt to satisfy the current interests of the receivers as well as the overall bandwidth constraints of the session. A general framework, an initial prototype, and a bandwidth allocation algorithm are presented together with experimental results. The experiences from the prototype have prompted refinements to the bandwidth-allocation algorithm that will be important for future implementations. We also conclude that the necessary messaging will not add a significant amount of bandwidth.