According to Apple, in one embodiment, the invention provides a method comprising loading a set of transport components into a memory; initializing each transport component of the set of transport components to listen on a particular conferencing interface using a listen string to associate with a network interface, each transport component of the set of transport components listening to a different conferencing interface, the listen string encapsulating parameters to one or more calls to listen; receiving an incoming call signal on the network interface having an incoming conferencing interface; processing the incoming call signal to detect the incoming conferencing interface; and launching an application based on the incoming conferencing interface. Here's Apple's summary of the invention:

"The invention provides a method and apparatus for listening on multiple network/conferencing protocols and/or interfaces. In addition, multiple persistent listening for multiple ports can exist for multiple conferencing applications (i.e., one persistent listen to one conferencing application) AND for a single conferencing application (i.e., multiple persistent listen to one conferencing application). Thus, for example a conferencing application can listen for incoming calls on both a TCP/IP port or an AppleTalk port.

"The invention can be implemented in a computer system having a memory, a processor, and a network interface, a method for dynamically launching a conferencing application upon the receipt of an incoming call comprising the steps of loading a set of transport components into the memory; initializing each transport components of the set of transport components to listen on a particular conferencing interface using the network interface, each transport component of the set of transport components listening to a different conferencing interface; receiving an incoming call signal on the network interface having an incoming conferencing interface; processing the incoming call signal to detect the incoming conferencing interface; and launching an application based on the incoming conferencing interface.

"An apparatus including a set of transport components coupled to the network interface, each transport component of the set of transport components having the capability of receiving a signal on a different conferencing interface; a conference component coupled to each component in the set of transport components; a call processing module coupled to the conference component; and, a process manager coupled to the call processing module; the conference component containing a circuit for causing the call processing module to cause process manager to activate a conferencing application upon detecting a call from one transport component of the set of transport components.

"The invention will allow a system to dynamically load a conferencing application only when necessary to answer a call, but not require the conferencing application to be loaded and executing to receive notice of an incoming call. In addition, different conferencing applications can also be 'dynamically' launched when incoming calls corresponding to each different conferencing applications arrive."

The inventor is Guy Riddle. The graphic below illustrates an example configuration in which various embodiments of the invention may be implemented.