Strategies for disseminating media information using redundant network streams

• US 20070091789A1
• Filed: 10/21/2005
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Thukral, Vivek
• Granted Patent: US 7,548,995 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/216
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols

Abstract

A system is described for disseminating media information. An operations center transmits at least a primary stream on a first network connection and a backup stream on a second network connection to a media device (such as a set-top box). The media device identifies whether the primary stream includes any missing information, and, if so, supplies the missing information from the backup stream. The primary stream and the backup stream can have the same or different bit rates. The operations center can send the backup stream as a component of a multiplexed stream, including at least one other stream. Through these provisions, the system provides a streaming mechanism that is both reliable and scalable.

Claims

1. A method for disseminating information to a target entity, comprising:

transmitting, from a source entity to the target entity, at least a primary stream of information on a first network connection and a backup stream of information on a second network connection;

receiving, at the target entity, the primary stream of information and the backup stream of information;

identifying whether the primary stream of information includes any missing information; and

supplying the missing information from the backup stream of information to supplement the primary stream of information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the primary stream of information and the backup stream of information comprise media information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting comprises multicasting-transmitting the primary stream of information and the backup stream of information, wherein the primary stream of information is associated with a first multicast address and the backup stream of information is associated with a second multicast address.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising initially defining, at the target entity, the primary stream of information as a stream of information which is received first at the target entity.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring the quality of the primary stream of information and the backup stream of information; and

redefining the primary stream of information as a stream of information having the best quality.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the primary stream of information and the backup stream of information have approximately the same bandwidth.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the backup stream of information has a smaller bandwidth than the primary stream of information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the backup stream of information has a lower quality compared to the primary stream of information.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the backup stream of information includes a subset of the frames contained in the primary stream of information.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the backup stream of information comprises a reduced-scale version of the primary stream of information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplying of the missing information is performed on a granularity of packets.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplying of the missing information is performed on a granularity of Group of Pictures (GOPs).

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the backup stream of information in a multiplexed stream of information, wherein the multiplexed stream of information includes at least one other stream of information multiplexed in with the backup stream of information.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the multiplexed stream of information is associated with a single multiplex address.

15. One or more machine-readable media containing machine-readable instructions for implementing the method of claim 1.

16. A system for disseminating information, comprising:

a coupling mechanism;

a source entity configured to transmit at least a primary stream of information on a first network connection of the coupling mechanism and a backup stream of information on a second network connection of the coupling mechanism; and

a target entity configured to;

receive the primary stream of information and the backup stream of information;

identify whether the primary stream of information includes any missing information; and

supply the missing information from the backup stream of information to supplement the primary stream of information.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the source entity is associated with functionality for disseminating media information to a collection of target entities.

18. A target entity for receiving information, comprising:

logic configured to receive at least a primary stream of information on a first network connection and a backup stream of information on a second network connection;

logic configured to identify whether the primary stream of information includes any missing information; and

logic configured to supply the missing information from the backup stream of information to supplement the primary stream of information.

19. The target entity of claim 18, wherein the target entity comprises functionality for receiving media information from an operations center via a multicast mode of transmission.

20. The target entity of claim 18, further comprising de-multiplexing means for extracting the backup stream of information from a multiplexed stream of information containing at least one other stream of information.