PACKET PRIORITIZATION AND ASSOCIATED BANDWIDTH AND BUFFER MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES FOR AUDIO OVER IP
First Claim
1. A system for transmitting voice communications over a data network, comprising:
- (a) an input operable to receive a voice stream from a user, the voice stream comprising a plurality of temporally distinct segments;
(b) a packet protocol interface operable to convert at least one selected first segment of the voice stream into at least a first packet; and
(c) an acoustic prioritization agent operable to control processing of at least one of the first segment and the at least a first packet based on at least one of a level of confidence that the contents of the selected first segment are not the product of voice activity, a type of voice activity associated with the contents of the first segment, and a degree of acoustic similarity between the first segment and a second segment of the voice stream.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention is directed to voice communication devices in which an audio stream is divided into a sequence of individual packets, each of which is routed via pathways that can vary depending on the availability of network resources. All embodiments of the invention rely on an acoustic prioritization agent that assigns a priority value to the packets. The priority value is based on factors such as whether the packet contains voice activity and the degree of acoustic similarity between this packet and adjacent packets in the sequence. A confidence level, associated with the priority value, may also be assigned. In one embodiment, network congestion is reduced by deliberately failing to transmit packets that are judged to be acoustically similar to adjacent packets; the expectation is that, under these circumstances, traditional packet loss concealment algorithms in the receiving device will construct an acceptably accurate replica of the missing packet. In another embodiment, the receiving device can reduce the number of packets stored in its jitter buffer, and therefore the latency of the speech signal, by selectively deleting one or more packets within sustained silences or non-varying speech events. In both embodiments, the ability of the system to drop appropriate packets may be enhanced by taking into account the confidence levels associated with the priority assessments.
112 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A system for transmitting voice communications over a data network, comprising:
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(a) an input operable to receive a voice stream from a user, the voice stream comprising a plurality of temporally distinct segments; (b) a packet protocol interface operable to convert at least one selected first segment of the voice stream into at least a first packet; and (c) an acoustic prioritization agent operable to control processing of at least one of the first segment and the at least a first packet based on at least one of a level of confidence that the contents of the selected first segment are not the product of voice activity, a type of voice activity associated with the contents of the first segment, and a degree of acoustic similarity between the first segment and a second segment of the voice stream. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for transmitting voice communications over a data network, comprising:
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receiving a voice stream from a user, the voice stream comprising a plurality of temporally distinct segments; converting at least one selected first segment of the voice stream into at least a first packet; and processing at least one of the first segment and the at least a first packet based on at least one of a level of confidence that the contents of the selected first segment are not the product of voice activity, a type of voice activity associated with the contents of the first segment, and a degree of acoustic similarity between the first segment and a second segment of the voice stream.
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Specification