Communications using adaptive multi-rate codecs

• US 20030189900A1
• Filed: 05/04/2001
• Published: 10/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Barany, Peter A., Bontu, Chandra Sekhar, Bharatia, Jayshree A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,072,336 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0014 by adapting the source coding

Abstract

A communications network includes a data network that is coupled to a wireless access network and other devices. The wireless access network enables access by mobile stations of the data network. Each mobile station, and optionally, one or more of other devices coupled to the data network, contains an adaptive multi-rate codec (coder/decoder) that can be set to operate at a plurality of rates. Based on the selected one of the plurality of rates, the mobile station or other device sets a quality-of-service (QoS) indicator value in a packet carrying data, such as real-time data, over the wireless access network and/or data network. By varying QoS requirements using the QoS indicator value for different codec rates, bandwidth requirements are varied so that more efficient usage of the data network is provided.

Claims

1. A method of communications, comprising:

determining one of plural rates to code data for communication over a network;

encapsulating the data in a packet having a quality-of-service indicator field; and

setting one of plural values for the quality-of-service indicator field based on the determined one of plural rates.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

setting a first value for the quality-of-service indicator field if a first rate is determined; and

setting a second value for the quality-of-service indicator field if a second rate is determined.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining one of plural rates comprises determining one of plural rates of an adaptive multi-rate codec.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the packet over a wireless link.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein encapsulating the data in the packet comprises encapsulating the data in an Internet Protocol packet.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein setting one of plural values for the quality-of-service indicator field comprises setting one of plural values for a differentiated services field.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining one of plural rates to code data comprises determining one of plural rates to code real-time data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining one of plural rates to code data comprises determining one of plural rates to code audio data.

9. An article comprising at least one storage medium comprising instructions that when executed cause a system to:

determine one of plural rates to code data for communication over a network; and

set one of plural quality-of-service values in a packet, based on the determined one rate, to carry the data over the network.

10. The article of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to determine one of plural rates by determining one of plural rates of an adaptive multi-rate codec.

11. The article of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to set one of the plural quality-of-service values by setting one of plural differentiated services field values.

12. The article for claim 11, wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to set the one of plural differentiated services field values in an Internet Protocol packet.

13. The article of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to set one of the plural quality-of-service values by setting one of plural differentiated services code points.

14. The article of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to determine one of plural rates to code one of audio data and video data.

15. A system comprising:

a codec adapted to code real-time data; and

a controller adapted to vary a codec rate and to set one of plural quality-of-service indicator values based on the codec rate.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising an interface to a wireless link.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the codec comprises an adaptive multi-rate codec.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the controller comprises application software to set the one of plural quality-of-service indicators.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising a network layer to encapsulate the data in a packet to carry the one quality-of-service indicator value.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the network layer comprises an Internet Protocol layer.

21. The system of claim 15, further comprising a Real-Time Protocol module adapted to encapsulate the real-time data in a Real-Time Protocol packet.

22. The system of claim 15, wherein the controller is adapted to set one of plural quality-of-service indicator values by setting one of plural differentiated services code points.

23. A system comprising:

a network interface to receive plural units of data from a network;

a plurality of queues to store the units of data, each unit of data containing a quality-of-service indicator, the plural units of data containing different quality-of-service indicator values that correspond to different coding rates; and

a controller adapted to store each unit of data in one of the plurality of queues based on the quality-of-service indicator value in the unit of data.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the units of data contain conversational data.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the coding rates comprise rates of an adaptive multi-rate codec.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the quality-of-service indicator values comprise differentiated services code points.