System, method, and computer readable medium rapid channel change

• US 20060245444A1
• Filed: 12/22/2005
• Published: 11/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Sharpe, Randall B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,281,351 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/412
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23805 Controlling the feeding rate to the network, e.g. by controlling the video pump
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4384 involving operations to reduce the access time, e.g. fast-tuning for reducing channel switching latency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64784 Data processing by the network data processing in packet switching systems H04L12/56; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; intermediate storage or scheduling H04L49/90; provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56

Abstract

A system, method and computer readable medium operable to move a video delay from a network video queue to a decoder video queue by discarding at least one video frame in a network video queue, thus moving video frames deeper in the queue forward in time. As such, rapid channel changing is provided without continuous unicasting, or temporarily transmitting at faster than the nominal rate, thereby alleviating strain on the network.

Claims

1. A method for rapid channel change, comprising:

discarding a video frame in the network video queue; and

concealing the discarded video frame.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the discarded video frame is a B-Frame.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a frame replacing the discarded frame may be one of:

an I-Frame, a Bs-Frame or a P-Frame.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising extracting frames from a buffer based on a display time stamp. If the frame is missing then nothing gets extracted from the buffer. The decoder will have to display something else, usually simply repeating the frame that is already being displayed.]

5. The method of claim 4, wherein if one of the frames is missing, repeating a previously displayed frame.

6. The method of claim 1, for use in combination with at least one of:

conventional television transmissions and high definition television transmissions.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein packets are transferred from the network video queue, across a network, and into the decoder video queue at a constant bit rate or a variable bit rate.

8. A computer readable medium for moving a video delay from a network video queue to a decoder video queue, comprising:

discarding video frames in the network video queue; and

moving video frames deeper in the network video queue forward in time.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, further comprising concealing the discarded video frames with previous video frames.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, further comprising;

entering the network video queue by an encoded frame of varying size every frame period; and

draining the network video queue at a constant rate or a variable rate.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, further comprising:

discarding a B-Frame if it is at a head of the network video queue; and

moving other packets further back in the network video queue forward in time.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising continuing the discarding, moving and concealing missing video frames until a delay in a unicast network queue is eliminated to synchronize with a multicast stream.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising sending all frames, including the B-Frames, by a network when the delay in the unicast network queue is eliminated.

14. A system for facilitating rapid channel change in a network video queue, comprising:

at least one module operable to discard at least one video frame in the network video queue; and

wherein the at least one module is operable to replace the at least one discarded video frame with at least one previous video frame.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a network having a network queue; and

a decoder having a decoder queue.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the decoder is operable to replace the discarded frame when it determines that the discarded frame has not arrived.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the decoder further comprises:

a decoder dejitter queue; and

wherein the decoder is operable to extract a video frame from the decoder dejitter queue when the video frame is needed to be decoded to satisfy a display time.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one module is operable to discard a B-Frame.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one module is operable to conceal a video frame potentially from:

an I-Frame, a Bs-Frame or a P-Frame.

20. The system of claim 14, for use in combination with at least one of:

conventional television transmissions and high definition television transmissions.