An immersive telepresence platform based on distributed architecture

A novel telepresence platform is proposed in this paper to provide immersive video conferencing based on distributed architecture and enhanced QoS/QoE technology. MCU(Multi-point Control Unit)-based telepresence platform has been widely used as a popular architecture due to its easy implementation of multiple video-audio mixing and conference controls from a central point. MCU-based platform usually inputs all participant´s media and outputs mixed media for conference participants one by one through network. Proposed platform has a concept of ´main speaker´ by decision algorithm during conference and determines a main speaker who sends a high-resolution media to simple nodes. Simple nodes manage routing tables, and they copy the media packets and forward them to conference participants according to the tables. For the immersive service, a robust packet loss recovery algorithm newly developed covers upto 10% bursty loss to prevent interruption of conference often observed in commercial Internet. Proposed platform with distributed media control protocol with enhanced QoS/QoE technology based on distributed architecture has been designed and implemented by software. It shows meaningful reduction of traffic over network with the shorter end-to-end media delay than observed in MCU-based platform under same conditions.