Reducing information reception delays

• US 20060041698A1
• Filed: 05/27/2004
• Published: 02/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zhong, Wei, Vega Garcia, Andres, Han, Mu
• Granted Patent: US 7,080,173 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/106
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6472 Internet
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 345/951 Key frame processing

Abstract

A technique for reducing information reception delays is provided. The technique reduces delays that may be caused by protocols that guarantee order and delivery, such as TCP/IP. The technique creates multiple connections between a sender and recipient computing devices and sends messages from the sender to the recipient on the multiple corrections redundantly. The recipient can then use the first arriving message and ignore the subsequently arriving redundant messages. The recipient can also wait for a period of time before determining which of the arrived messages to use. The technique may dynamically add connections if messages are not consistently received in a timely manner on multiple connections. Conversely, the technique may remove connections if messages are consistently received in a timely manner on multiple connections. The technique can accordingly be used with applications that are intolerant of data reception delays such as Voice over IP, real-time streaming audio, or real-time streaming video.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computer system for reducing information reception delays using a protocol that guarantees order and delivery of messages, comprising:

under control of a sender computing device,

creating multiple connections using the protocol between the sender computing device and a recipient computing device;

transmitting original messages on a created connection to the recipient computing device;

transmitting a redundant copy of the original messages on another created connection to the recipient computing device; and

under control of the recipient computing device,

receiving the original messages on the created connection;

receiving the redundant copy of the original messages on the other created connection;

using either the original messages or the redundant copy of the original messages, depending on which arrived first; and

discarding the unused messages.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the protocol is TCP.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the original messages are key frames.

4. The method of claim 3 including sending delta frames on the other created connection.

5. The method of claim 4 including storing delta frames received by the recipient computing device.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein when a key frame is not received in a timely manner, using delta frames received after a previously received key frame.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein Nagling is disabled.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein a Voice over IP application uses the messages.

9. A system for reducing information reception delays using a protocol that guarantees order and delivery of messages, comprising:

a component that creates multiple connections using the protocol between a sender computing device and a recipient computing device; and

a component that transmits messages containing similar information on the multiple created connections to the recipient computing device.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the recipient computing device comprises:

a component that receives a first set of messages on a first created connection;

a component that receives a second set of messages on a second created connection; and

a component that uses the set of messages received first; and

discards the messages subsequently received.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the protocol is TCP.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the messages are key frames.

13. The system of claim 12 including sending delta frames on the second created connection.

14. The system of claim 13 including associating key and delta frames by a frame sequence number.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein when a key frame is not received in a timely manner, using delta frames received after a previously received key frame.

16. The system of claim 9 wherein Nagling is disabled.

17. The system of claim 9 wherein a Voice over IP application uses the messages.

18. The system of claim 9 wherein transmitting messages includes transmitting messages containing higher-resolution information on the first created connection and lower-resolution information on the second created connection.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the recipient computing device waits for a period of time before determining which of any received messages to use.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein after the period of time, the recipient computing device determines which of all arrived messages contains a highest resolution of information.

21. The system of claim 18 wherein the information includes images.

22. The system of claim 18 wherein the information includes audio.

23. The system of claim 18 wherein transmitting messages includes transmitting information of a first size on a connection and transmitting information of another size on another connection.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the sizes are unequal.

25. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps, comprising:

creating multiple connections between a sender computing device and a recipient computing device using a protocol that guarantees order and delivery;

transmitting original messages on a first created connection to the recipient computing device; and

transmitting a redundant copy of the original messages on a second created connection to the recipient computing device.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 further including computer-executable instructions for performing steps, comprising:

receiving the original messages on the first created connection;

receiving the redundant copy of the original messages on the second created connection;

using the messages that were received first; and

discarding the messages received after the messages that were received first.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the protocol is TCP.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein a Voice over IP application uses the messages.

29. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps, comprising:

receiving original messages on a created connection;

receiving a redundant copy of the original messages on another created connection;

using either the original messages or the redundant copy of the original messages; and

discarding the unused messages.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 29 wherein messages containing higher-resolution information are used.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 29 including waiting for a period of time before determining which of a set of arrived messages to use.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 29 wherein a sender selects a connection as a function of time.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 29 wherein a sender selects a connection randomly.