A method of connecting two or more MCU's to increase the total number of endpoints that can be included in a conference.
Cascading as it relates to video conferencing is a process by which two or more bridges are connected to-gether to increase the number of ports available for a specific video conference. One of the primary benefits of cascading is that it is cost effective for geographically disparate video conferencing users. For instance, a corporation with 10 sites in Asia and another group of 10 sites in California could save money by cascading two bridges; one in Asia and one in California. This would allow multiple sites, in Cali-fornia or Asia, to connect utilizing only one link across the Pacific Ocean.
Cascading is a method of allowing the number of participants to expand beyond what a single MCU can support. Cascading allows one MCU videoconference to join or be invited into another MCU videoconference. The joining MCU videoconference becomes a participant of the videoconference it joins and is treated like the other participants. The host MCU sends the joining MCU the processed data streams, which the latter distributes to its videoconference participants. In this way, all of the participants in the expanded videoconference receive the same information.