OPTIMIZED TRANSFER OF LARGE OBJECT DATA BLOCKS IN A TELECONFERENCING SYSTEM

A method and apparatus for communication between agents in an electronic conferencing system is disclosed. In an electronic conferencing system wherein data is shared between a plurality of participants during an electronic conference, a method is disclosed for transferring large object data blocks among the participants during the electronic conference comprising the following steps: a) receiving an asynchronous request for large object data; b) placing the request in a request queue; c) receiving an asynchronous request for reprioritization of the request queue; d) determining a transport medium capability; e) partitioning the large object data into data blocks, a size of the data blocks being variable and corresponding to the capability of the transport medium; f) transferring the requested large object data to each of the participants via the transport medium; and g) removing the request from the request queue upon completion of the step of sending the requested large object data.