METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A SCHEDULER FOR A MACRO-DIVERSITY PORTION OF A TRANSMISSION

• US 20080259878A1
• Filed: 11/01/2007
• Published: 10/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quarterhill Inc. (f/k/a Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wi-LAN Inc.
• Inventors: Govind, Keerthi S., Zahedi, Sina, Connors, Dennis P., Ju, Huei-Jiun (Laura)
• Granted Patent: US 7,903,604 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/336
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services

Abstract

A method, apparatuses, and system of broadcasting content data in a macro-diversity region of a data frame includes receiving a stream of transport packets. Selecting at least one burst size, from amongst a set of a plurality of predetermined burst sizes. Allocating one or more data bursts with the selected burst size to the macro-diversity region of the data frame, each data burst comprising at least a portion of the received transport packets and wherein the at least one burst size is selected so as to minimize a number of data bursts allocated to the macro-diversity region. Then communicating the allocation of data bursts to a transmitter that includes the allocation of data bursts in the macro-diversity region of a data frame transmitted by the transmitter.

Claims

1. A method of broadcasting content data in a macro-diversity region of a data frame, the method comprising:

receiving a stream of transport packets;

selecting at least one burst size, from amongst a set of a plurality of predetermined burst sizes;

allocating one or more data bursts with the selected burst size to the macro-diversity region of the data frame, each data burst comprising at least a portion of the received transport packets and wherein the at least one burst size is selected so as to minimize a number of data bursts allocated to the macro-diversity region; and

communicating information regarding the allocation of data bursts to the macro-diversity region for broadcasting a data frame comprising the macro-diversity region from at least a first transmitter.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising broadcasting from a second transmitter a signal including the data frame, such that the macro-diversity region of the data frames broadcasted by the first and second transmitters are synchronized.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the macro-diversity region of the data frames transmitted from the first and second transmitter comprise identical data packets.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting at least one burst size comprises selecting a largest burst size.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of the plurality of predetermined burst sizes comprises one or more of a 4800 bit burst size, a 3840 bit burst size, a 2800 bit burst size, a 1920 bit burst size, a 960 bit burst size, a 480 bit burst size, a 384 bit burst size, a 288 bit burst size, a 192 bit burst size, and a 144 bit burst size.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a largest burst size from amongst the set of burst sizes that is smaller than a remaining portion available in the macro-diversity region;

updating the remaining portion available in the macro-diversity region based on the selected burst size;

repeating selecting and updating until none of the burst sizes is smaller than the remaining portion available in the macro-diversity region.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein when none of the burst sizes is smaller than the remaining portion available in the macro-diversity region the remaining portion of the macro-diversity region is left empty of data or filled with null packets.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the allocation of data bursts to the macro-diversity region comprises information regarding the allocation of data bursts in a previous macro-diversity region.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating a map to the macro-diversity region, wherein the map is updated when data bursts are allocated to the macro-diversity region.

10. A method of generating a macro-diversity region in a data frame;

the method comprising;

identifying a plurality of sub-channels and a plurality of symbol periods, wherein a symbol period comprises a plurality of symbols, and wherein each symbol during an individual symbol period is associated with a different one of the plurality of sub-channels;

generating a map that includes information that describes data bursts and a size of a map in a subsequent macro-diversity region, wherein the map information is included in at least a first symbol during a first symbol period and wherein a data burst is included in at least a second symbol during the first symbol period.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of sub-channels comprises a carrier frequency that is orthogonal to a carrier frequency of each of the other sub-channels.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the information that describes data bursts and a size of the map in a subsequent macro-diversity region is used to identify a first data burst in the subsequent macro-diversity region.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the map is included in a first symbol period of the macro-diversity region.

14. A method of broadcasting content data in a macro-diversity region of a data frame, the method comprising:

encapsulating a plurality of transport packets, each transport packet comprising content data;

selecting at least one burst size, from amongst a set of a plurality of predetermined burst sizes, and allocating one or more data bursts with the selected burst size to the macro-diversity region of the data frame, each data burst comprising at least a portion of the encapsulated transport packets and wherein the at least one burst size is selected so as to minimize the number of data bursts allocated to the macro-diversity region; and

broadcasting from each of at least a first and a second transmitter a signal including the data frame in which the at least one data burst was allocated, such that the signals broadcasted from the first and second transmitter are synchronized.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of data packets comprising content data; and

wherein encapsulating a plurality of transport packets, comprises;

encapsulating at least a portion of the content data packets into MPEG-2 transport packets.

16. A scheduler comprising:

means for receiving a stream of transport packets;

means for selecting at least one burst size, from amongst a set of a plurality of predetermined burst sizes;

means for allocating one or more data bursts with the selected burst size to the macro-diversity region of the data frame, each data burst comprising at least a portion of the received transport packets and wherein the at least one burst size is selected so as to minimize a number of data bursts allocated to the macro-diversity region; and

means for communicating information regarding the allocation of data bursts to the macro-diversity region for broadcasting a data frame comprising the macro-diversity region from at least a first transmitter.

17. The scheduler of claim 16, wherein the plurality of predetermined burst sizes comprises one or more of a 4800 bit burst size, a 3840 bit burst size, a 2800 bit burst size, a 1920 bit burst size, a 960 bit burst size, a 480 bit burst size, a 384 bit burst size, a 288 bit burst size, a 192 bit burst size, and a 144 bit burst size.

18. The scheduler of claim 16, wherein the macro-diversity region further comprises a map region that identifies locations of the data bursts in the macro-diversity region.

19. A scheduler comprising:

an input that receives a plurality of data packets;

a processor that selects a burst size from among a set of a plurality of predetermined burst sizes, the selected burst size being the largest burst size that fits within a non-allocated portion of a macro-diversity region of a data frame, allocates the selected burst size to the macro-diversity region of the data frame, updates a size of the non-allocated portion of the macro-diversity region based on the allocated burst, and repeats selecting, allocating, and updating until none of the predetermined burst sizes will fit in the non-allocated portion of the macro-diversity region; and

an output configured to communicate the allocation of data bursts.

20. The scheduler of claim 19, wherein the processor selects at least one burst size so as to minimize a number of data bursts allocated to the macro-diversity region.

21. The scheduler of claim 19, wherein the set of the plurality of predetermined burst sizes comprises one or more of a 4800 bit burst size, a 3840 bit burst size, a 2800 bit burst size, a 1920 bit burst size, a 960 bit burst size, a 4800 bit burst size, a 384 bit burst size, a 288 bit burst size, a 192 bit burst size, and a 144 bit burst size

22. The scheduler of claim 19, wherein the non-allocated portion of the macro-diversity region is left empty of data when the non-allocated portion of the macro-diversity region is smaller than the smallest size of the predetermined burst sizes.

23. The scheduler of claim 19, wherein the non-allocated portion of the macro-diversity region is filled with null packets when the non-allocated portion of the macro-diversity region is smaller than the smallest size of the predetermined burst sizes.

24. The scheduler of claim 19, wherein the output communicates the allocation of data bursts to a plurality of transmitters.

25. The scheduler of claim 19, wherein the output communicates the allocation of data bursts to an access service network gateway.