Reliable audio-video transmission system using multi-media diversity

• US 20060062242A1
• Filed: 09/23/2004
• Published: 03/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Dacosta, Behram Mario
• Granted Patent: US 8,184,657 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/464
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1867 Arrangements specially adapted for the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/22 using redundant apparatus to increase reliability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/3065 for real time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/122 by diverting traffic away from congested entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/25 with rate being modified by the source upon detecting a change of network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

A system and method for switching data packet traffic distribution across diverse transmission medium according to detected quality of service characteristics for a given data packet rate from server to client. It should be recognized that diverse medium are not interdependent with regard to fading or signal strength considerations. One mode of switching comprises switching all the data packets from transmission on a first medium to transmission over a second diverse medium. In a second mode of switching the distribution is changed according to a media-time coding mechanism in which typically data is being transmitted simultaneously across more than one of the multiple diverse medium. The data packet transmissions preferably comprise audio-video data packet streams, such as MPEG-2 streams. By way of example, the diverse transmission medium may comprise a wireless connection (i.e. WiFi) used in combination with a power-line network connection, such as within a home network.

Claims

1. An apparatus for providing increased transmission quality of service, comprising:

a server configured for transmitting packet data over diverse transmission medium to a client;

means of detecting quality of service of said transmission; and

means for transmitting packet data across said diverse transmission medium and performing switching of said packet data in response to changes in the detected quality of service.

2. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein said switching of packet data transmission comprises switching the entire data packet stream to a particular medium that provides sufficient quality of service at a given bandwidth.

3. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein said switching of packet data transmission comprises changing the media-time coding performed when transmitting the packet data simultaneously over the diverse medium.

4. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the diversity of transmission medium provides compensation by a second or subsequent medium for any temporary fading or outage experienced in a first medium over which data is transmitted to said client.

5. An apparatus for providing increased data packet transmission quality of service, comprising:

a server having multiple diverse forms of transmission medium configured for communicating data to a client;

a computer processor configured for controlling data packet transmissions over said diverse forms of medium; and

programming configured for execution by said computer processor for,

detecting changes in the quality of service (QoS),

switching packet data transmission between said diverse medium in response to said changes in quality of service.

6. An apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein the diversity of transmission medium provides compensation by a second or subsequent medium for any temporary fading or outage experienced in a first medium over which data is transmitted to said client.

7. An apparatus as recited in claim 5, further comprising automatically increasing the transmission rate of packet data to utilize higher available bandwidths, or decreasing the packet data transmission rate to reduce error rates in response to lower available data bandwidth.

8. An apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein said switching of packet data transmission comprises switching the entire data packet stream to a particular medium that provides sufficient quality of service.

9. An apparatus as recited in claim 8, wherein a first form of transmission medium is selected as a default medium and switching is performed to another form of medium if available bandwidth drops or error rates rise on said default medium beyond a threshold level.

10. An apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein said switching of packet data transmission comprises changing the media-time coding performed when transmitted the packet data simultaneously over the diverse medium.

11. An apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein said media-time coding comprises encoding data packets utilizing media-time trellis coding, block coding, or interleaving.

12. An apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein said packet data comprises forms of streaming data including video, audio, or a combination.

13. An apparatus as recited in claim 12, wherein said data comprises an MPEG-2 data stream.

14. An apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein utilizing said diverse forms of transmission medium increases transmission diversity with a resultant increase in the available minimum quality of service (QoS) for said server.

15. An apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein quality of service (QoS) can be registered in response to packet error rate (PER), bit error rate (BER), jitter, latency, or bandwidth availability.

16. An apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein said diverse forms of transmission medium comprise medium in which fading or signal strength vary independently when comparing at least two of the diverse transmission medium.

17. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein said diverse forms of transmission medium comprise at least one wireless medium utilized with at least one power-line medium.

18. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein said diverse forms of transmission medium comprise wireless medium, at least two of which provide different propagation characteristics.

19. An apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein said server comprises a network server.

20. An apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein said network server is configured for communicating within a home based network.

21. An apparatus as recited in claim 20, wherein said home based network is configured for communicating audio-video packet data between audio-video capture devices, audio-video player devices and audio-video output devices.

22. An apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein said programming configured for switching packet data transmission over diverse forms of transmission medium is responsive to detected quality of service as registered by the receipt of acknowledgements (ACKs) received by said server from said client, or error rates, for a given packet stream bandwidth.

23. A method of increasing quality of service for packet based transmissions, comprising:

configuring a client and server for communication of data packets over diverse forms of transmission medium;

detecting the quality of service of said communication of data packets for a given data packet rate between the client and server; and

switching distribution of data packet transmissions across diverse medium in response to detected quality of service for the given data packet rate between the client and server.

24. A method as recited in claim 23, wherein said switching of the distribution of said data packet transmissions comprises switching all data packet transmissions from one of said diverse medium to another.

25. A method as recited in claim 23, wherein said switching of the distribution of said data packet transmissions comprises switching the media-time coding of data transmission across the diverse medium.

26. A method as recited in claim 25, wherein said media-time coding comprises encoding data packets utilizing media-time trellis coding, block coding, or interleaving.

27. A method as recited in claim 23, wherein the transmission of data packets across said diverse transmission medium provides compensation by a second or subsequent medium for any temporary fading or outage experienced in a first medium over which data is transmitted to said client.

28. A method as recited in claim 23, wherein said data packet transmissions comprise forms of streaming data including video, audio, or a combination.

29. A method as recited in claim 23, wherein said data packet transmissions comprise MPEG-2 data streams.

30. A method as recited in claim 23, wherein said switching data packet distributions across diverse forms of transmission medium increases transmission diversity with a resultant increase in the available minimum quality of service (QoS).