COMMUNICATION APPARATUS, COMMUNICATION METHOD AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM

• US 20080222494A1
• Filed: 10/30/2007
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hisense Visual Technology Co., Ltd. (Qingdao Huatong State-Owned Capital Operation (Group) Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Matsuzawa, Shigeo, Ise, Kotaro, Gondo, Shunichi, Irie, Yuji, Ajitomi, Daisuke
• Granted Patent: US 9,191,158 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/776
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0045 Arrangements at the receiver end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0057 Block codes H04L1/0061, H04L1/0064 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1819 with retransmission of additional or different redundancy
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1835 Buffer management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1845 Combining techniques, e.g. code combining

Abstract

There is provided with a communication method including: attempting to receive a media packet from a network; storing a received media packet in a first buffering unit; receiving an FEC packet including redundant data to recover a lost media packet and information which specifies a plurality of media packets associated with the redundant data; storing a received FEC packet in a second buffering unit; selecting the FEC packet from the second buffering unit; dividing FEC operation processing to be carried out using the redundant data included in selected FEC packet and the media packets related to the redundant data into a plurality of processes and sequentially carrying out each process so that one process is carried out every time the receiving of a media packet is attempted; and inserting a media packet recovered through the FEC operation processing in the first buffering unit.

Claims

1. A communication apparatus comprising:

a reception attempting unit configured to attempt to receive a media packet from a network;

a first buffering unit configured to perform buffering of the media packets received by the reception attempting unit;

a FEC packet receiver configured to receive an FEC (Forward Error Correction) packet including redundant data to recover a lost media packet and information which specifies a plurality of media packets associated with the redundant data;

a second buffering unit configured to perform buffering of the FEC packets received by the FEC packet receiver;

a selection unit configured to select the FEC packet from the second buffering unit;

an FEC operation processing unit configured to divide FEC operation processing to be carried out using the redundant data included in selected FEC packet and the media packets related to the redundant data into a plurality of processes and sequentially carry out each process so that one process is carried out every time the reception attempting unit attempts to receive a media packet;

a media packet insertion unit configured to insert a media packet recovered through the FEC operation processing in the first buffering unit; and

a media packet delivery unit configured to sequentially deliver the media packets in the first buffering unit to a pre-specified application.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the media packet and the FEC packet are compliant with an RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) protocol.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the FEC operation processing unit erases, when the media packets associated with the redundant data is delivered to the application, the FEC packet including the redundant data from the second buffering unit.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the FEC operation processing is exclusive OR (XOR) operation processing among the redundant data and the media packets associated with the redundant data.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a predetermined time elapses after the first buffering unit obtains the media packet from the reception attempting unit, the media packet delivery unit delivers the media packet to the application.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the media packet delivery unit calculates a difference between a reception time of a packet received first out of the FEC packet and the media packets associated with the FEC packet and a reception time of the packet received last, as a delay time,

calculates an FEC operation time required for the FEC operation processing by multiplying a media packet reception interval given beforehand by a divided number of times the FEC operation processing is divided, and

sums up the delay time and the FEC operation time to thereby obtain the predetermined time.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a reception interval measurement unit configured to measure reception intervals of the media packets,

wherein the media packet delivery unit uses an average of the reception intervals of the media packets measured by the reception interval measurement unit as the media packet reception interval.

8. A communication method comprising:

attempting to receive a media packet from a network;

storing a received media packet in a first buffering unit performing buffering of the media packets;

receiving an FEC (Forward Error Correction) packet including redundant data to recover a lost media packet and information which specifies a plurality of media packets associated with the redundant data;

storing a received FEC packet in a second buffering unit performing buffering of the FEC packets;

selecting the FEC packet from the second buffering unit;

dividing FEC operation processing to be carried out using the redundant data included in selected FEC packet and the media packets related to the redundant data into a plurality of processes and sequentially carrying out each process so that one process is carried out every time the receiving of a media packet is attempted;

inserting a media packet recovered through the FEC operation processing in the first buffering unit; and

sequentially delivering the media packets in the first buffering unit to a pre-specified application.

9. A computer readable medium storing a computer program for causing a computer to execute instructions to perform the steps of:

attempting to receive a media packet from a network;

storing a received media packet in a first buffering unit performing buffering of the media packets;

receiving an FEC (Forward Error Correction) packet including redundant data to recover a lost media packet and information which specifies a plurality of media packets associated with the redundant data;

storing a received FEC packet in a second buffering unit performing buffering of the FEC packets;

selecting the FEC packet from the second buffering unit;

dividing FEC operation processing to be carried out using the redundant data included in selected FEC packet and the media packets related to the redundant data into a plurality of processes and sequentially carrying out each process so that one process is carried out every time the receiving of a media packet is attempted;

inserting a media packet recovered through the FEC operation processing in the first buffering unit; and

sequentially delivering the media packets in the first buffering unit to a pre-specified application.