Video quality of service management and constrained fidelity constant bit rate video encoding systems and methods

• US 10,015,497 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2015
• Issued: 07/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Brydon, Neil W., Hunt, Danny R., McCarthy, Sean T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Moutaouakil, Mounir
• Application Number:
  US14/948,227
• Publication Number:
  US 20160080744A1
• Time in Patent Office: 956 Days
• Field of Search: 370226-240, 370252-253, 37524001-24011
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/10 using adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/124 Quantisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/146 Data rate or code amount at the encoder output
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/149 by estimating the code amount by means of a model, e.g. mathematical model or statistical model
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/152 by measuring the fullness of the transmission buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/154 Measured or subjectively estimated visual quality after decoding, e.g. measurement of distortion use of rate-distortion criteria H04N19/147
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/159 Prediction type, e.g. intra-frame, inter-frame or bidirectional frame prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/184 the unit being bits, e.g. of the compressed video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/196 being specially adapted for the computation of encoding parameters, e.g. by averaging previously computed encoding parameters processing of motion vectors H04N19/513
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/46 Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence

Abstract

A constrained variable rate coding technique limits the number of bits used in an encoding process. A quality setting indicates a maximum level of quality to be used in the encoding process which limits the number of bits used in the encoding process. A bandwidth reclamation factor which indicates an amount of bandwidth to conserve may also be used with the quality setting. The constrained variable rate coding technique using a lower quality encoding process for less complex video data and a higher quality encoding technique for higher quality video data.

Claims

1. An apparatus for managing quality of video services:

a management interface which is configured to produce at least one bandwidth reclamation factor for one or more video coding units;

a management network which is configured to convey data from the management interface to the one or more video coding units;

the one or more video coding units which are constant bit rate and responsive to a bandwidth reclamation factor; and

a data network which is configured to convey at least video data from the one or more video coding units and a video user,

wherein the management interface receives one or more video channel quality parameters which indicate at least one of an operator'"'"'s desired video quality for each channel, or an individual subscriber'"'"'s desired video quality for each channel, and wherein a bandwidth reclamation factor indicates an amount of bandwidth to be made available on average, and

wherein the one or more video coding units are configured to produce adaptive bit rate (ABR) chunks and associated metadata.