Transformation method for network conference connections

Claim 3

A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said network comprises a plurality of switches, said establishing an original connection comprises establishing paths through an original subset of said switches, said storing information defining said original connection comprises storing information defining said paths through said original subset of said switches, said determining a target connection comprises determining paths through a target subset of said switches, said storing information defining said target connection comprises storing information defining said paths through said target subset of said switches, and said determining a set of operations comprises determining any paths to be deleted from said original subset of said switches and any paths to be added to said target subset of said switches to transform said original connection into said target connection such that no path is both deleted from and added to any switch.

Claim 4

A method in accordance with claim 2 wherein said stored information defining said paths through said original subset of said switches comprises individual, intra-switch path information stored by each of said original subset of said switches and said stored information defining said paths through said target subset of said switches comprises individual, intra-switch path information stored by each of said target subset of said switches.

Claim 5

A method in accordance with claim 2 wherein each of said plurality of switches stores routing information for routing connections to destination user stations, and wherein said determining paths through said target subset of said switches comprises each of said target subset of said switches determining intra-switch paths based on its stored routing information and said target plurality of user stations.

Claim 6

A method in accordance with claim 4 wherein said determining any paths to be added to said target subset of said switches comprises each of said target subset of said switches ascertaining ones of its determined intra-switch paths for said target connection that must be added to transform said original connection into said target connection.

Claim 7

A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said target plurality of user stations includes at least two user stations that are not included in said original plurality of user stations.

Claim 8

A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said original plurality of user stations includes at least two user stations that are not included in said target plurality of user stations.

Claim 9

A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said target plurality of user stations includes at least one user station that is not included in said original plurality of user stations, and said original plurality of user stations includes at least one user station that is not included in said target plurality of user stations.

Claim 10

A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said determining a target connection is performed in response to a request to merge a plurality of connections including said original connection, and said target plurality of user stations comprises a union of the user stations of said plurality of connections.

Claim 11

A method in accordance with claim 9 further comprising deleting from said network ones of said plurality of connections other than said original connection.

Claim 12

A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said determining a target connection is performed in response to a request to split said original connection into a plurality of connections including said target connection, and each of said target plurality of user stations is included in said original plurality of user stations.

Claim 13

A method in accordance with claim 11 further comprising adding to said network ones of said plurality of connections other than said target connection.

Claim 14

A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said determining a target connection is performed in response to a request to transform a plurality of connections including said original connection into a plurality of connections including said target connection.

Claim 15

A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said network comprises a plurality of switches, and said determining a target connection is performed collectively by ones of said switches using parallel processing.

Claim 16

A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said network comprises a plurality of switches, and said determining a set of operations is performed collectively by ones of said switches using parallel processing.

Claim 17

A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said network comprises a plurality of switches, wherein a connection through said network is described by a matrix having an existing intra-switch path represented as a logic one and a possible intra-switch path represented as a logic zero, and wherein said determining a set of operations comprises obtaining a first matrix having elements each being a logic one only if the corresponding element of a matrix for said original connection is a logic zero and the corresponding element of a matrix for said target connection is a logic one, obtaining a second matrix having elements each being a logic one only if the corresponding element of said original connection matrix is a logic one and the corresponding element of said target connection matrix is a logic zero, and determining said set of operations comprising addition of an intra-switch path for each logic one of said first matrix and deletion of an intra-switch path for each logic one of said second matrix.

Claim 18

A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said network comprises a plurality of switches, wherein a connection through said network is described by a plurality of matrices each corresponding to one of said switches and having an existing intra-switch path represented as a logic one and a possible intra-switch path represented as a logic zero, and wherein said determining a set of operations comprises obtaining a first plurality of matrices having elements each being a logic one only if the corresponding element of a matrix for said original connection is a logic zero and the corresponding element of a matrix for said target connection is a logic one, obtaining a second plurality of matrices having elements each being a logic one only if the corresponding element of a matrix for said original connection is a logic one and the corresponding element of a matrix for said target connection is a logic zero, and determining said set of operations comprising addition of an intra-switch path for each logic one of said first plurality of matrices and deletion of an intra-switch path for each logic one of said second plurality of matrices.

Claim 19

A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said network comprises a multicast packet switching network comprising a plurality of packet switches interconnected by a plurality of inter-switch links, where each connection through said network comprises a subset of said plurality of packet switches and a subset of said plurality of inter-switch links, and each of said plurality of inter-switch links uses at most one logical channel number for each connection.

Claim 20

A method in accordance with claim 18 further comprising retaining logical channel numbers for ones of said plurality of inter-switch links that are common to said original and target connections.

Claim 21

A method in accordance with claim 18 wherein said original and target connections are multicast connections.

Claim 24

A method in accordance with claim 21 wherein said original and target connectivity patterns are different ones of a plurality of connection types including point-to-multipoint, point-to-multipoint with upstream capability, and multipoint-to-multipoint.

Claim 25

A method in accordance with claim 21 wherein said network comprises a multicast packet switching network comprising a plurality of packet switches interconnected by a plurality of inter-switch links, where each connection through said network comprises a subset of said plurality of packet switches and a subset of said plurality of inter-switch links, and each of said plurality of inter-switch links uses at most one logical channel number for each connection.

Claim 28

A method in accordance with claim 24 wherein said network comprises a multicast packet switching network comprising a plurality of packet switches interconnected by a plurality of inter-switch links, where each connection through said network comprises a subset of said plurality of packet switches and a subset of said plurality of inter-switch links, and each of said plurality of inter-switch links uses at most one logical channel number for each connection.