Notes for Team 7-8

Remarks

• You get to use all the services provided by the other teams. You can assume location services (person's identity and location, as provided by directory service).
• Voicemail application:
  • The gateway gets and sends email on one side, and handles telephone calls on the other.
  • You will need to handle both audio and email files. RealAudio, fun to use, converts binary files to audio. There is a RealAudio server in the department.
  • You will also use text-to-speech software, which produces binary files.
  • You will need to collect passwords (PINs) from the telephone.
• Whiteboard application:
  • The whiteboard is implemented for participating PC's. You can get it off the net (ftp:/ftp.ee.lbl.gov, in conferencing/).
  • An easy implementation would be a java applet in your browser.
  • This application stresses the multipoint function of the dataflow team. For example, how do you find out which conferences are in session?
  • You might implement public and private channels.
  • When implementing a join, you might want to find out where the closest point is.
  • How to handle multiple conversations is an issue. You could collect all at a bridge and average all incoming voice samples and send it back. Or you might do a tree of bridges. Or you could use a conference control-moderator which "passes a baton" to the next speaker. Another alternative to a bridge is a multicast group.
  • You need a directory to keep track of people.
  • Where to start: 2 parties sharing a whiteboard. Then you can move on to decide whether to use a bridge or not. Then add in the telephone, and then add conference control.
  • Flow management: the data flow team will have to separate out the sessions into separate [audio] streams for you.

Questions

1. What is a MIME attachment? A method for attaching standard format files to email, supported in most of today's mailers.
2. Do we need to worry about encryption? There is no need to encrypt PIN data, since it comes in over the phone network, which is already secure. If you have time, you can encrypt email messages.
3. What should we use for storage? You can use Access via JDBC, or MSQL (mini-SQL), or just a file.
4. What is our audio signal? 8-bit, 8KHz, PCM samples.