CollabWorx SRTC™ (SRTC) is a web collaboratory. The system extends capabilities of web browsers towards fully interactive, multimedia, collaborative environment.

SRTC is also a platform for building collaboratory systems. It is possible to build collaboratory systems of arbitrary complexity using TI platform. Products such as CW Virtual Meeting and CW Virtual Classroom are examples of SRTC-based applications.

CollabWorx platform is implemented in DHTML. All application modules are implemented as portlets. The portlets can be loaded and released as needed, ensuring that the system is lean and agile. The portlets interact with each other and can control each other behavior and exchange data both locally and remotely. There is no requirement that all portlets or even different instances of the same applet come from the same HTTP server. TI collaboratory engines, available for UNIX and Windows NT platforms, do not need to be collocated with any of the HTTP servers hosting applications. SRTC is the only system implementing this flexible and powerful architecture.

SRTC is very tightly integrated with the Web. One starts the system from a Web browser, which, thereafter, one can continue using. The system connects the user to a SRTC server of user's choice.

Once in the system, the user can open one of the more than a dozen collaboratory applications to work on projects with partners, take a class at a virtual university, create and use a chat room, private or public, videoconference, watch a movie with friends, collectively surf the Web and discuss the contents, or play a network game. Or do all of the above at the same time, in any combination, in as many chat rooms as he/she wishes.

Few collaboratory system, public domain or commercial, provide so many applications under a consistent and very simple session and floor control.

SRTC is an event-sharing system. The system requires that there is a local copy of each application on every workstation. The shared functionality is defined by application, not by the collaboratory runtime. This is in sharp contrast to the most popular commercial collaboratory systems, such as NetMeeting™ from Microsoft. These systems implement the shared display model.

Shared event systems have a number of advantages over shared display systems, including capability to define shared functionality, to implement independent data views, and to support asynchronous collaboration. CollabWorx extensively uses these capabilities without sacrificing advantages of the shared display model: NetMeeting's shared application functionality is fully integrated into SRTC session control model.

Design of SRTC protocols is based on the assumption that application and application only should define collaboratory functionality. We recognize that collaboratory applications may require functionality that we cannot envision today. Hence, SRTC does not define application protocols. Instead, we provide a reliable, high-performance message passing and message routing mechanism, integrated with the session management, which can be easily used to implement any application-level protocols.

SRTC provides transparent support for all synchronous collaboratory functions. Built in a stateless Web environment, SRTC is a statefull system. It supports all functions of a synchronous
collaboratory, including session management, data/event distribution, flexible floor control, and multiple, configurable security levels. The system does not impose any restrictions on a number of concurrent sessions, users, or collaborative applications. Application sessions are created via a mouse click and application instances can be created on local and remote workstations on the fly.

The floor control model allows for both master-master and master-slave relationship between collaborating parties. The actual implementation of the master-slave relationship is left to the application designer, allowing for a variety of floor control models. TI collaboratory runtime provides functionality for dynamic modification of the master-slave relationship at any time.

Asynchronous collaboration is supported via . Session record and playback capability has been designed into the system as its fundamental component. This capability applies to both events and data streams and can be used to review collaborative sessions in asynchronous fashion. Playback/review capability is also provided for real-time continuous data streams such as audio and video. It can be used to archive interactive distance learning classes so that they can be replayed on demand.

SRTC architecture relies on a real-time messaging server. Such an architecture can potentially introduce scalability bottleneck. SRTC addresses this issue by making a careful distinction between event and data channels. The central server does not handle any data streams. As a Web-based system, SRTC relies on the HTTP protocol to deliver data to applications. For media streams, we rely on other Web protocols, such as RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) and RTP (Real Time Protocol). Collaboratory server merely establishes application sessions to facilitate synchronized delivery of the data streams from multiple servers to multiple application clients. SRTC supports URL mapping capability, enabling applications to retrieve replicated data from multiple servers. This architecture allows us to implement applications such as synchronized, interactive, random access delivery of digital video to multiple slave clients under control of the master client.

Direct, intense data transfers between collaboratory applications are necessary for audio/video conferencing and for distributed data visualization. SRTC provides scalable multimedia support, with decentralized distribution of such streams under SRTC session control. The system supports multi-user, multi-platform audio/video conferencing agent.

CollabWorx Platofrm technology is a foundation of all our collaborative products applications in domains such as interactive distance learning, on-line customer support, distributed medical intelligence, command and control, crisis management, distance consulting, and project management.

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