WIRELESS BROADCASTING SYSTEM

• US 20080170530A1
• Filed: 01/12/2007
• Published: 07/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Monument Bank of Intellectual Property, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Wi-LAN Inc.
• Inventors: Madan, Seema, Govind, Keerthi S., Petry, Brian D., Marsh, Gene W., Burchill, William S., Gummadi, Srikanth, Connors, Dennis P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,064,444 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/312
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/67 Common-wave systems, i.e. using separate transmitters operating on substantially the same frequency
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2602 Signal structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/023 Multiplexing of multicarrier modulation signals multicarrier modulation H04L27/2601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2362 Generation or processing of Service Information [SI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2381 Adapting the multiplex stream to a specific network, e.g. an Internet Protocol [IP] network transmission of MPEG streams over ATM H04L12/5601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2383 Channel coding or modulation of digital bit-stream, e.g. QPSK modulation arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by adapting the channel coding H04L1/0009; analogue front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/242 Synchronization processes, e.g. processing of PCR [Program Clock References] arrangements for synchronising broadcast or distribution via plural systems in broadcast distribution systems H04H20/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26208 the scheduling operation being performed under constraints
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64315 DVB-H
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services

Abstract

A wireless broadcast system that collects content for distribution over a wireless communication network. At least one content stream is received and encapsulated into a stream of transport packets that are ruggedized for broadcast over the wireless communication link. The stream of transport packets are simultaneously broadcast as part of an identical signal from a plurality of synchronized transmitters in a single frequency network. The content can include multimedia data, such as audio/video data, movies, game, audio broadcasts, television network programs, or other types of multimedia content.

Claims

1. A method of broadcasting data, the method comprising:

receiving at least one content stream;

encapsulating the at least one content stream into a stream of transport packets for broadcast over a wireless communication link; and

simultaneously broadcasting an identical signal including the stream of transport packets from a plurality of synchronized transmitters in a single frequency network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising formatting the content stream as a digital video broadcast for handheld (DVB-H) signal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the transport packets comprise motion picture expert group (MPEG) transport packets.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identical signal comprises an Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation (OFDM) signal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one content stream comprises multimedia data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one content stream comprises a television network program.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the identical signal further includes at least one transport packet containing an electronic program guide.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein encapsulating the at least one content stream comprises adding forward error correction (FEC) information to the stream of transport packets.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein encapsulating the at least one content stream comprises interleaving content from a plurality of independent content streams into an aggregate content stream.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the transport packets include information identifying the occurrence of a later interleaving instance of the same independent content stream in the aggregate content stream.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the later interleaving instance is the next instance of the independent content stream.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one content stream comprises an IP encoded content stream.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising synchronizing the plurality of transmitters based on a reference time signal.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein encapsulating the at least one content stream further comprises partitioning the content to a size based upon a size dimension of a maximum transmission unit.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the size dimension of the maximum transmission unit is predetermined.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein each transmitter broadcasts the identical signal over an air interface via at least one antenna.

17. An access service network system comprising:

a network interface configured to receive a plurality of finely interleaved content streams;

an encapsulator configured to receive the plurality of finely interleaved content streams and to coarsely interleave the plurality of content streams into an aggregate content stream and encapsulate the aggregate content stream into transport stream packets that are ruggedized for transmission over an air interface;

a single frequency network adapter configured to receive the transport stream packets and to synchronously distribute the transport stream packets; and

a plurality of base stations, each base station configured to receive transport stream packets distributed from the single frequency network adapter and to synchronously broadcast an identical signal that includes the series of transport stream packets.

18. The network of claim 17, wherein the plurality of content streams comprise multimedia data.

19. The network of claim 17, wherein the plurality of content streams comprise a television network program.

20. The network of claim 17, wherein the plurality of content streams comprise IP encoded content streams.

21. The network of claim 17, wherein the encapsulator is further configured to add forward error correction (FEC) information to the content.

22. The network of claim 17, wherein the encapsulator is further configured to include information in the transport packets identifying the occurrence of a later interleaving instance of the same independent content stream in the aggregate content stream.

23. The network of claim 22, wherein the later interleaving instance is the next instance of the independent content stream.

24. The network of claim 17, wherein the encapsulator is further configured to partition the transport packets to a size based upon a size dimension of a maximum transmission unit.

25. A network system comprising:

an encapsulator configured to receive encoded content from a plurality of content providers, interleave the content into an aggregate content stream, and format the aggregate content stream into transport stream packets; and

a plurality of transmitters configured to receive the transport stream packets, assemble broadcast frames that include the transport stream packets and synchronously broadcast identical signals that include the broadcast frames.

26. The network of claim 25, wherein the plurality of transmitters are further configured to broadcast the signals as orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) signals.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein, wherein each broadcast frame is divided along a time dimension into symbols and along a frequency dimension into channels.

28. A transmitter station comprising:

a network interface module configured to receive service data units, each service data unit containing discrete sections of a coarsely interleaved content stream, and being encapsulated to a size which fits a physical layer container;

a scheduler module configured to arbitrate access to a downlink data channel;

a downlink traffic channel module configured to accept the protocol data units and to provide the protocol data units to a physical layer module in accordance with the scheduler module access to the downlink data channel, wherein the physical layer module formats the protocol data units into broadcast frames for transmission over a wireless communication link; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the broadcast frames over the wireless communication link, wherein each broadcast frame includes a preamble, a single connection identifier, and at least one protocol data unit.

29. The transmitting station of claim 28, wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit the broadcast frames as an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) signal.

30. The transmitting station of claim 28, further comprising a security control module configured to provide encryption and decryption capabilities.

31. An access service network system comprising:

a network interface configured to receive a plurality of finely interleaved content streams;

an encapsulator configured to receive the plurality of finely interleaved content streams and to coarsely interleave the plurality of content streams into an aggregate content stream; and

a base station configured to build a broadcast frame that includes an OFDM preamble, a single connection identification indicator, and discrete sections of the coarsely interleaved aggregate content stream and to synchronously broadcast an identical signal including the broadcast frame.

32. The access service network of claim 31, wherein the encapsulator is further configured to add forward error correction (FEC) information to the content.

33. An access service network system comprising:

a network interface configured to receive a plurality of finely interleaved content streams;

an encapsulator configured to receive the plurality of finely interleaved content streams and to coarsely interleave the plurality of content streams into coarsely interleaved content streams;

a single frequency network adapter configured to receive the coarsely interleaved content streams and to synchronously distribute the coarsely interleaved content streams; and

a plurality of base stations, each base station being configured to receive the distributed coarsely interleaved content streams from the single frequency network adapter, build a broadcast frame that includes an OFDM preamble, a single connection identification indicator, and discrete sections of the coarsely interleaved content streams, and to broadcast identical signals in synchronization with the plurality of base stations.

34. One or more computer readable media storing computer executable instructions that, when executed perform a method comprising:

receiving at least one content stream;

encapsulating the at least one content stream into a stream of transport packets for broadcast over a wireless communication link; and

simultaneously broadcasting an identical signal including the stream of transport packets from a plurality of synchronized transmitters in a single frequency network.

35. A method of broadcasting data comprising:

receiving service data units, each service data unit containing discrete sections of a coarsely interleaved content stream, and being encapsulated to a size which fits a physical layer container;

arbitrating access to a downlink data channel with a scheduler module;

accepting the service data units and providing the service data units to a physical layer module in accordance with the scheduler module access to the downlink data channel, wherein the physical layer module formats the service data units into broadcast frames for transmission over a wireless communication link; and

transmitting the broadcast frames over the wireless communication link, wherein each broadcast frame includes a preamble, a single connection identifier, and at least one service data unit.

36. One or more computer readable media storing computer executable instructions that, when executed perform a method comprising:

receiving service data units, each service data unit containing discrete sections of a coarsely interleaved content stream, and being encapsulated to a size which fits a physical layer container;

arbitrating access to a downlink data channel with a scheduler module;

accepting the service data units providing the service data units to a physical layer module in accordance with the scheduler module access to the downlink data channel, wherein the physical layer module formats the service data units into broadcast frames for transmission over a wireless communication link; and

transmitting the broadcast frames over the wireless communication link, wherein each broadcast frame includes a preamble, a single connection identifier, and at least one service data unit.