Heuristic algorithms for server allocation in distributed VoIP conferencing

To allocate audio conference servers (CS) [R. V. Prasad et al., June 2003] for virtual conferencing over IP, we leverage session initiation protocol (SIP) for signaling. We address here the problem of facilitating seamless conference amongst participants using CSs. This demands a proper allocation of CSs to clients to maximize the number of participants served and at a reduced cost. Seeking a more realistic approach, we avoid over-simplifying assumptions; hence the problem becomes relatively harder. We present three heuristic algorithms for these NP-hard problems and bring about the effectiveness of their performance.