Statistical synchronization among participants in real-time multimedia conference

In this paper, an algorithm to determine the set of packets generated continuously and periodically from different participants that are arriving at a node either for mixing at the master of a conference, or for simply playing back at a regular participant of a conference, is proposed. The essence of the algorithm is to estimate the average packet arrival time (or reference time) for each participant. With the reference time at hand, the maximum jitter and the optimum waiting time for a mixer to wait packets from all participants can be determined. The error of the proposed algorithm is enumerated by the Chernoff bound and is shown to be acceptable in practical application.