METHOD OF PROVIDING FEEDBACK TO A MEDIA SERVER IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20080192710A1
• Filed: 02/14/2007
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Eunyoung, Calin, Doru, Rege, Kiran M., Balachandran, Krishna
• Granted Patent: US 8,180,283 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/263 Rate modification at the source after receiving feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/29 using a combination of thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/30 in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/38 by adapting coding or compression rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0231 based on communication conditions dynamic wireless traffic scheduling definition based on channel quality criteria H04W72/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0247 based on conditions of the access network or the infrastructure network central resource management H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0278 using buffer status reports dynamic wireless traffic scheduling definition H04W72/12
• 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

The present invention provides a method involving a media server, a wireless network, and at least one media client associated with at least one air interface with the wireless network. The method includes accessing first information indicative of at least one state of the at least one media client. The first information is provided by the at least one media client. The method also includes accessing second information indicative of resources associated with the at least one air interface. The second information is provided by the wireless network. The method further includes providing at least one feedback parameter to the media server. The at least one feedback parameter is formed based on the first and second information.

Claims

1. A method involving a media server, a wireless network, and at least one media client associated with at least one air interface with the wireless network, comprising:

accessing first information indicative of at least one state of said at least one media client, the first information being provided by said at least one media client;

accessing second information indicative of resources associated with said at least one air interface, the second information being provided by the wireless network;

providing at least one feedback parameter to the media server, said at least one feedback parameter being formed based on the first and second information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the first information comprises accessing first information indicative of at least one of a packet delivery rate to said at least one media client, a packet loss rate associated with said at least one media client, available buffer space in said at least one media client, and an expected time for buffer overflow or underflow in said at least one media client.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the first information comprises accessing first information included in at least one control packet provided by said at least one media client.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the second information comprises accessing second information indicative of at least one of a buffer level at a wireless network entity, a load offered by at least one wireless network entity, a number of users sharing the downlink bandwidth of said at least one air interface associated with said at least one media client, and a fraction of bandwidth of said at least one air interface available to each of said at least one media client.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the second information comprises accessing the second information provided periodically or in response to a trigger.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein accessing the second information in response to the trigger comprises accessing the second information provided in response to at least one of a change in a quality metric associated with said at least one air interface, a signal to interference plus noise ratio falling or rising relative to a threshold, a packet error rate falling or rising relative to a second threshold, or a change in a buffer level.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising forming said at least one feedback parameter based on the first and second information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein forming said at least one feedback parameter comprises forming information indicative of at least one of a maximum rate available to said at least one media client, an amount of data belonging to said at least one media client that is buffered in at least one entity in the wireless network, a number of packets associated with each of said at least one media client that were delivered over at least one previous feedback interval, and contents of at least one control packet provided by said at least one media client.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein providing said at least one feedback parameter comprises providing at least one control packet to the media server.

10. A method involving a media server, a wireless network, and at least one media client associated with at least one air interface with the wireless network, comprising:

receiving at least one feedback parameter at the media server, said at least one feedback parameter being formed based on first information indicative of at least one state of said at least one media client, the first information being provided by said at least one media client, and second information indicative of resources associated with said at least one air interface, the second information being provided by the wireless network; and

providing at least one packet at a rate determined based on said at least one feedback parameter.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving said at least one feedback parameter formed based on the first information comprises receiving said at least one feedback parameter formed based on first information indicative of at least one of a packet delivery rate to said at least one media client, a packet loss rate associated with said at least one media client, available buffer space in said at least one media client, and an expected time for buffer overflow or underflow in said at least one media client.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving said at least one feedback parameter formed based on the second information comprises receiving said at least one feedback parameter formed based on second information indicative of at least one of a buffer level at a wireless network entity, a load offered by at least one wireless network entity, a number of users sharing the downlink bandwidth of said at least one air interface associated with said at least one media client, and a fraction of bandwidth of said at least one air interface available to each of said at least one media client.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving said at least one feedback parameter comprises receiving information indicative of at least one of a maximum rate associated with the wireless network, an amount of data belonging to said at least one media client that is buffered in at least one entity in the wireless network, a number of packets associated with each of said at least one media client that were delivered over at least one previous feedback interval, a time-stamp or sequence number associated with the last packet delivered to said at least one media client, and contents of at least one control packet provided by said at least one media client.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving said at least one feedback parameter comprises receiving at least one control packet at the media server.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein providing said at least one packet comprises applying rate shaping to at least one variable bit rate data stream in accordance with the determined rate.