Endpoint Initiation of Multipart Conferences

1. A method for establishing a conference between two or more multimedia terminals through a Multipoint Control Unit, MCU, that processes digital signals, the method comprising: pre-assigning and storing, by the MCU, conference addresses that are, respectively, uniquely and statically associated with registered users of the MCU; pre-assigning, before the conference, a predetermined amount of resources with a first conference address; receiving, by the MCU, a first call from a first multimedia terminal that has dialed the first conference address, determining, by the MCU, whether the first conference address is one of the conference addresses pre-assigned and stored in the MCU, in response to the receiving the first call by the MCU and the MCU determining the first conference address is one of the conference addresses pre-assigned and stored in the MCU, allocating the predetermined amount of resources of the MCU and including the first multimedia terminal in the conference, wherein the predetermined amount of resources is an amount of the resources of the MCU for the conference to accommodate at least the first call and a second call according to predefined settings when the first call is received by the MCU, receiving, by the MCU, the second call from a second multimedia terminal that has dialed the first conference address, and in response to the receiving the second call by the MCU, including the second multimedia terminal in the conference with the resources that were previously allocated in the allocating resources.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the establishing the conference is only carried through if the first multimedia terminal is authorized, by the MCU checking whether the first multimedia terminal is authorized, to initiate an establishment of the conference through the first conference address.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: receiving a third call, by the MCU, from a third multimedia terminal that has dialed the first conference address, and in response to the receiving the third call by the MCU, allocating resources of the MCU and including the third multimedia terminal in the conference.

4. The method according to claim 1 , comprising: respectively receiving, by the MCU, a number of calls from a number of multimedia terminals, each call being associated to a single multimedia terminal that has dialed the first conference address, and in response to the respectively receiving, allocating resources of the MCU and respectively including the number of multimedia terminals in the conference.

5. The method according to any of the claims 3 or 4 , further comprising: allocating required functionalities for a conference including more than two participants, including Continuous Presence and/or Voice Switching.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein: in response to the receiving the first call by the MCU and the MCU determining the first conference address is one of the conference addresses pre-assigned and stored in the MCU, including the first multimedia terminal in the conference by placing the first multimedia terminal into a hold state and providing the first multimedia terminal with information to: disconnect from the MCU, input a pre-defined PIN code to the MCU to join an already created conference, and to input a new PIN code to the MCU to create a conference, in response to the MCU receiving, from the first multimedia terminal, the input of the new PIN code to create the conference, allocating primary MCU resources as part the amount of the resources of the MCU and establishing the conference for the input PIN code including the first multimedia terminal, the primary MCU resources including encoder processing resources of the MCU, in response to the receiving the second call by the MCU, including the second multimedia terminal in the conference by placing the second multimedia terminal into a hold state and providing the second multimedia terminal with information to: disconnect from the MCU, input a pre-defined PIN code to the MCU to join an already created conference, and to input a new PIN code to the MCU to create a conference, and in response to the MCU receiving, from the second multimedia terminal, the input of the pre-defined PIN code to join the conference established by the input of the new PIN code by the first multimedia terminal, allocating secondary MCU resources as part the amount of the resources of the MCU and including the second multimedia terminal in the conference, the secondary MCU resources including decoder processing resources of the MCU.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the input PIN code authorizes the first and second multimedia terminals access to the conference.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first conference address includes a series of numbers and/or characters.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first and second calls are routed to the MCU based on a portion of the first conference address that identifies the MCU.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the portion of the first conference address that identifies the MCU is a prefix.

11. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: receiving a third call by the MCU, wherein the allocating resources includes assigning the amount of the resources of the MCU for the conference to accommodate at least the first, second, and third calls according to the predefined settings when the first call is received by the MCU, and in response to receiving the third call, allocating additional resources of the MCU to provide Continuous Presence and Voice Switching.

12. The method according to claim 11 , further comprising: releasing resources, of the amount of the resources of the MCU, corresponding to one of the first, second, and third calls that has left the conference.

13. A Multipoint Control Unit, MCU, comprising a central processor configured to: pre-assign and store a predetermined amount of resources associated with conference addresses in the MCU that are, respectively, uniquely and statically associated with registered users of the MCU, receive a first call from a first multimedia terminal that has dialed a first conference address, determine whether the first conference address is one of the conference addresses pre-assigned and stored in the MCU, in response to receiving the first call and determining the first conference address is one of the conference addresses pre-assigned and stored in the MCU, allocate the predetermined amount of resources of the MCU and include the first multimedia terminal in the conference by assigning the predetermined amount of the resources of the MCU for the conference to accommodate at least the first call and a second call according to predefined settings when the first call is received by the MCU, receive a second call from a second multimedia terminal that has dialed the first conference address, and in response to receiving the second call, include the second multimedia terminal in the conference with the resources that were previously allocated when the first call was received by the MCU.

14. The MCU according to claim 13 , wherein the central processor is configured to: in response to receiving the first call and determining the first conference address is one of the conference addresses pre-assigned and stored in the MCU, include the first multimedia terminal in the conference by placing the first multimedia terminal into a hold state and providing the first multimedia terminal with information to: disconnect from the MCU, input a pre-defined PIN code to the MCU to join an already created conference, and to input a new PIN code to the MCU to create a conference, in response to receiving, from the first multimedia terminal, the input of the new PIN code to create the conference, allocate primary MCU resources as part the amount of the resources of the MCU and establish the conference for the input PIN code including the first multimedia terminal, the primary MCU resources including encoder processing resources of the MCU, in response to receiving the second call by the MCU, include the second multimedia terminal in the conference by placing the second multimedia terminal into a hold state and providing the second multimedia terminal with information to: disconnect from the MCU, input a pre-defined PIN code to the MCU to join an already created conference, and to input a new PIN code to the MCU to create a conference, and in response to receiving, from the second multimedia terminal, the input of the pre-defined PIN code to join the conference established by the input of the new PIN code by the first multimedia terminal, allocate secondary MCU resources as part the amount of the resources of the MCU and include the second multimedia terminal in the conference, the secondary MCU resources including decoder processing resources of the MCU.

15. The MCU according to claim 14 , wherein the first and second calls are routed to the MCU based on a portion of the first conference address that identifies the MCU.

16. A method for establishing a conference between two or more multimedia terminals through a Multipoint Control Unit, MCU, that processes digital signals, the method comprising: assigning, by the MCU, a predetermined amount of resources to a first conference address, wherein the predetermined amount of resources are assigned before the predetermined amount of resources are allocated; receiving, after the predetermined amount of resources are assigned to the first conference address, a first call from a first multimedia terminal that has dialed the first conference address, determining, by the MCU, whether the first conference address is one of the conference addresses assigned by the MCU, in response to the receiving the first call by the MCU, allocating the already assigned predetermined amount of resources of the MCU and including the first multimedia terminal in the conference, wherein the predetermined amount of resources is an amount of the resources of the MCU for the conference to accommodate at least the first call and a second call according to predefined settings when the first call is received by the MCU, receiving, by the MCU, the second call from a second multimedia terminal that has dialed the first conference address, and in response to the receiving the second call by the MCU, including the second multimedia terminal in the conference with the resources that were previously allocated in the allocating resources.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising: in response to the receiving the first call by the MCU and the MCU determining the first conference address is one of the conference addresses assigned in the MCU, including the first multimedia terminal in the conference by placing the first multimedia terminal into a hold state and providing the first multimedia terminal with information to disconnect from the MCU, input a pre-defined personal identification code to the MCU to join an already created conference, and to input a new personal identification code to the MCU to create a conference, in response to the MCU receiving, from the first multimedia terminal, the input of the new personal identification code to create the conference, allocating primary MCU resources as part the amount of the resources of the MCU and establishing the conference for the input personal identification code including the first multimedia terminal, the primary MCU resources including encoder processing resources of the MCU, and in response to the receiving the second call by the MCU, including the second multimedia terminal in the conference by placing the second multimedia terminal into a hold state and providing the second multimedia terminal with information to disconnect from the MCU, input a pre-defined PIN code to the MCU to join an already created conference, and to input a new PIN code to the MCU to create a conference.