PREDICTIVE ADAPTIVE CODING AND MODULATION

• US 20090060033A1
• Filed: 10/13/2008
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ViaSat Incorporated
• Original Assignee: ViaSat Incorporated
• Inventors: Vanderaar, Mark, Mo, Fan, Kimmich, Kevin
• Granted Patent: US 8,358,690 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.20
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0009 by adapting the channel coding H04L1/1812 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0014 by adapting the source coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0019 in which mode-switching is based on a statistical approach
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0046 Code rate detection or code type detection H04L1/0038 takes precedence; detection of the data rate H04L25/0262; for packet format H04L1/0091
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0098 Unequal error protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/136 Incoming video signal characteristics or properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/156 Availability of hardware or computational resources, e.g. encoding based on power-saving criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/162 User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/164 Feedback from the receiver or from the transmission channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/30 using hierarchical techniques, e.g. scalability H04N19/63 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/66 involving data partitioning, i.e. separation of data into packets or partitions according to importance
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/89 involving methods or arrangements for detection of transmission errors at the decoder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25808 Management of client data terminal profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices are described for providing predictive adaptive communications. Embodiments include a network access unit, in communication with multiple data terminals, and adapted to determine geospatial and other network data (e.g., current capability and position information relating to a designated one of the data terminals, map data, etc.), and to generate a link condition prediction as a function of the network data. The network access unit may then adaptively encode source data (e.g., using adaptive coding and modulation of hierarchically pre-coded data) to preempt impacts of changing link conditions on communications with the designated data terminal as a function of the link condition prediction.

Claims

1. A predictive adaptive communications network, comprising:

a designated data terminal, being one of a plurality of data terminals, adapted to receive a transmission over a communication link, and having;

a current capability metric defining at least one of a data receiving capability of the designated data terminal, a data playback capability of the designated data terminal, or a data communication capability of the communication link; and

a current position metric defining at least one of a current position of the designated data terminal, a current motion vector of the designated data terminal;

a network access unit, in communication with the plurality of data terminals and comprising;

a source data receiver module adapted to receive source data;

a terminal data receiver module, adapted to determine the current capability metric of the designated data terminal and the current position metric of the designated data terminal;

a controller module, communicatively coupled with the terminal data receiver module, and adapted to generate a link condition prediction as a function of the current capability metric of the designated data terminal and the current position metric of the designated data terminal;

a pre-coder module adapted to pre-code the source data using a plurality of pre-coding schemes to generate a plurality of sets of representation data, each set of representation data representing the set of source data;

an adaptive coding and modulation module adapted to associate at least some of the sets of representation data with at least one of a plurality of coding and modulation schemes,

wherein at least one of the pre-coding schemes or at least one of the coding and modulation schemes is determined as a function of the link condition prediction generated by the controller module; and

a transceiver module, adapted to generate a transmission by applying at least one of the pre-coding schemes to the source data to generate at least one of the sets of representation data, and applying at least one of the coding and modulation schemes to the at least one of the sets of representation data.

2. The network of claim 1, further comprising:

a map generation module, communicatively coupled with the plurality of data terminals, and adapted to generate map data for at least some of the plurality of data terminals, the map data comprising a link condition and a positional condition associated with each of the respective data terminals.

3. The network of claim 1,

wherein the map data further comprises geospatial data relating to at least one of weather, traffic, terrain, or sources of potential communication interference.

4. The network of claim 1,

wherein the map data further comprises data relating to temporal changes in map data.

5. The network of claim 1,

wherein the map data further comprises data relating to geospatial changes in map data.

6. The network of claim 1,

wherein the terminal data receiver module is adapted to determine the current capability metric of the designated data terminal and the current position metric of the designated data terminal at least partially as a function of the map data.

7. The network of claim 1,

wherein the controller module is adapted to generate the link condition prediction at least partially as a function of the map data.

8. The network of claim 1,

wherein the network access unit comprises the map generation module.

9. A predictive adaptive network access unit, comprising:

a source data receiver module adapted to receive source data;

a terminal data receiver module, adapted to determine a current capability metric of a designated data terminal and a current position metric of the designated data terminal;

a controller module, communicatively coupled with the terminal data receiver module, and adapted to generate a link condition prediction as a function of the current capability metric of the designated data terminal and the current position metric of the designated data terminal;

a pre-coder module adapted to pre-code the source data using at least one pre-coding scheme to generate at least one set of representation data, the at least one set of representation data comprising a hierarchical representation of the set of source data; and

an adaptive coding and modulation module adapted to associate the at least one set of representation data with at least one of a coding and modulation scheme,

wherein the at least one of the pre-coding schemes and/or the at least one coding and modulation scheme is determined as a function of the link condition prediction generated by the controller module.

10. The network access unit of claim 9, further comprising a transceiver module, adapted to:

generate a transmission by applying the at least one pre-coding scheme to the source data to generate the at least one set of representation data, and applying the at least one coding and modulation scheme to the at least one set of representation data; and

communicate the transmission to the designated data terminal over a communication link associated with the designated data terminal.

11. The network access unit of claim 9, further comprising:

a map generation module, communicatively coupled with a network having a plurality of data terminals, and adapted to generate map data relating to at least one region of the network,

wherein the designated data terminal is one of the plurality of data terminals.

12. The network access unit of claim 11, further comprising:

wherein the map data is generated as a function of geospatial data relating to the network.

13. The network access unit of claim 12,

wherein the geospatial data relates to at least one of weather, traffic, terrain, or sources of potential communication interference.

14. The network access unit of claim 11,

wherein the map data comprises a link condition and a positional condition associated with each of the plurality data terminals.

15. The network access unit of claim 11,

wherein the terminal data receiver module is adapted to determine the current capability metric of the designated data terminal and the current position metric of the designated data terminal at least partially as a function of the map data.

16. The network access unit of claim 11,

wherein the controller module is adapted to generate the link condition prediction at least partially as a function of the map data.

17. The network access unit of claim 9,

wherein the current capability metric defines at least one of a data receiving capability of the designated data terminal, a data playback capability of the designated data terminal, or a data communication capability of the communication link.

18. The network access unit of claim 9,

wherein the current position metric defines at least one of a current position of the designated data terminal, a current motion vector of the designated data terminal.

19. The network access unit of claim 9,

wherein the terminal data receiver module is adapted to determine at least one of the current capability metric or the current position metric as a function of data received from the designated data terminal.

20. The network access unit of claim 9,

wherein the at least one pre-coding scheme comprises at least one of a scalable pre-coding scheme or a data partitioning scheme.

21. A method for providing predictive adaptive communication over a network, the method comprising:

receiving source data representing content to be communicated with a designated data terminal over a network;

determining a current capability metric of the designated data terminal;

determining a current position metric of the designated data terminal;

generating a link condition prediction as a function of at least one of the current capability metric of the designated data terminal or the current position metric of the designated data terminal;

determining at least one pre-coding scheme for pre-coding the source data to generate at least one set of representation data, the at least one set of representation data comprising a hierarchical representation of the set of source data;

determining at least one coding and modulation scheme,

wherein at least one of the at least one pre-coding scheme or the at least one coding and modulation scheme is determined as a function of the link condition prediction;

generating a transmission by associating the at least one set of representation data with the at least one coding and modulation scheme.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

communicating the transmission to the designated data terminal over a communication link associated with the designated data terminal.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

generating map data relating to at least one region of a network having a plurality of data terminals,

wherein the designated data terminal is one of the plurality of data terminals.

24. The method of claim 23,

wherein the map data is generated as a function of geospatial data relating to the network.

25. The method of claim 23,

wherein the map data comprises a link condition and a positional condition associated with each of the plurality data terminals.

26. The method of claim 23,

wherein at least one of current capability metric or the current position metric is determined as a function of the map data.

27. The method of claim 23,

wherein the link condition prediction is determined as a function of the map data.

28. The method of claim 21,

wherein at least one of the current capability metric or the current position metric is determined as a function of data received from the designated data terminal.