An embodiment of the invention is a multipoint conferencing system having
the ability to dynamically assign an endpoint to a "closest" one of
multiple conference servers is disclosed. In one embodiment, when an
endpoint first connects to the conferencing system, its Endpoint ID
(e.g., IP address, E164 address) is determined. Based on the Endpoint ID,
the conferencing system selects the most appropriate ones of the
conference servers to act as the endpoint's "local" conference server.
That is, the endpoint will transmit and receive conference data from
other endpoints via the selected conference server. If no other endpoints
across the network happen to be viewing a particular endpoint's video
stream, the stream is not provided to the network, thus conserving
network bandwidth. An embodiment further creates appropriate linking
between conference servers automatically, manages conference server
topology and determines link type (e.g., Unicast vs. Multicast linking)
automatically.