Abstract

Value-added services in telecommunication networks may be defined as anything that goes beyond two-party voice calls. This thesis focuses on the floor control issue for multiparty sessions in tomorrow's telecommunication networks. Floor Control enables the control of media streams, e.g., who can be seen and heard when more than one party is exchanging media streams over a network. Several conferencing scenarios have been studied, leading to a definition of the requirements for a generic floor control mechanism. After defining the requirements, we surveyed the related work in the literature (i.e., SIP and PARLAY) to identify whether they provide (or not) the defined requirements. Based on this evaluation, we have proposed an architecture that benefits from the available technologies and which also provides the missing parts in order to achieve a complete solution. We have identified that PARLAY as per today's specification does not fulfill all the requirements for floor control. In addition, we have identified the need for a complete solution for floor control integrating APIs with the protocols. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)