Schemes for user-interest controlled video bandwidth adaptation in a collaborative workspace environment

In this paper, bandwidth-sharing schemes, controlled by user-interest, are presented as an approach to efficient use of resources in a collaborative workspace environment. Two schemes for group videoconferencing are presented and evaluated. Monitoring of user-behavior and message passing to adapt video bandwidth allocation to user needs are key features of both schemes, in which each user´s client reports interest in other users to enable them to determine their relative importance. Experimental results using a prototype implementation to sample user-behavior show that one scheme is better suited for high, and the other for low bandwidth-limit scenarios. Measurements also show that the message passing does not add a substantial amount of bandwidth.