LOCATING POINTS OF INTEREST USING REFERENCES TO MEDIA FRAMES WITHIN A PACKET FLOW

• US 20090119722A1
• Filed: 11/01/2007
• Published: 05/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gahm, Joshua, Drisko, Robert, VerSteeg, William C., Oran, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,966,551 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/87
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234381 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. decreasing the frame rate by frame skipping
• 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 21/4384 involving operations to reduce the access time, e.g. fast-tuning for reducing channel switching latency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6437 Real-time Transport Protocol [RTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method comprises receiving a stream of transport packets encapsulating media packets, and generating a reference to the point-of-interest media packet relative to the location of the point-of-interest within the transport packet stream. The reference is generated for each media packet that is identified as a point-of-interest

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a stream of transport packets encapsulating media packets; and

generating, for each media packet that is identified as a point-of-interest (POI), a reference to the POI media packet relative to the location of the POI within the transport packet stream.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying one or more of the media packets as a point-of-interest.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference comprises a first portion and a second portion, and the generating further comprises:

setting the first portion of the reference to a first value that identifies one of the transport packets encapsulating the POI media packet; and

setting the second portion of the reference to a second value that identifies the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference comprises a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion, and the generating further comprises:

setting the first portion of the reference to a flow identifier of the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

setting the second portion of the reference to a packet identifier of the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

setting the third portion of the reference to a value that identifies the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the stream of transport packets comprises a stream of RTP packets, and the reference comprises a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion, and the generating further comprises:

setting the first portion of the reference to an RTP flow identifier of the RTP packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

setting the second portion of the reference to an RTP sequence number of the RTP packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

setting the third portion of the reference to a sequence number of the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the stream of transport packets comprises a stream of UDP packets, and the reference comprises a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion, and the generating further comprises:

setting the first portion of the reference to a UDP flow identifier of the UDP packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

generating a checksum over the UDP packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

setting the second portion of the reference to the checksum; and

setting the third portion of the reference to a sequence number of the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

7. A system comprising:

memory with logic; and

a processor configured with the logic to;

receive a stream of transport packets encapsulating media packets;

identify one or more of the media packets as points-of-interest; and

generate, for each media packet identified as a point-of-interest (POI), a reference to the POI media packet relative to the location of the POI within the transport packet stream.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to:

encapsulate the reference to the POI media packet in another transport packet.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to:

transmit the reference to the POI media packet.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to:

modify a header of each transport layer packet that encapsulates one of the media packets identified as a point-of-interest, to contain a description of the point-of-interest; and

transmit the stream of transport packets including the modified transport layer packets.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the reference comprises a first portion and a second portion, and the processor is further configured with the logic to:

set the first portion of the reference to a first value that identifies the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

set the second portion of the reference to a second value that identifies the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the reference comprises a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion, and the processor is further configured with the logic to:

set the first portion of the reference to a flow identifier of the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

set the second portion of the reference to a packet identifier of the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

set the third portion of the reference to a value that identifies the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

13. A system of generating references to points of interest in a media stream, comprising:

means for receiving a stream of transport packets encapsulating media packets;

means for identifying one or more of the media packets as points of interest; and

means for generating, for each media packet identified as a point-of-interest (POI), a reference to the POI media packet relative to the location of the POI within the transport packet stream.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

means for encapsulating the reference to the POI media packet in another transport packet.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

means for encapsulating the reference to the POI media packet in another transport packet; and

means for transmitting the stream of transport packets and the another transport packet.

16. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

means for modifying a header of each transport layer packet that encapsulates one of the media packets identified as a point-of-interest, to contain a description of the point-of-interest; and

means for transmitting the stream of transport packets including the modified transport layer packets.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the reference comprises a first portion and a second portion, and the means for generating further comprises:

means for setting the first portion of the reference to a first value that identifies the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

means for setting the second portion of the reference to a second value that identifies the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the reference comprises a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion, and the means for generating further comprises:

means for setting the first portion of the reference to a flow identifier of the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

means for setting the second portion of the reference to a packet identifier of the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

means for setting the third portion of the reference to a value that identifies the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the stream of transport packets comprises a stream of RTP packets, and the reference comprises a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion, and the means for generating further comprises:

means for setting the first portion of the reference to an RTP flow identifier of the RTP packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

means for setting the second portion of the reference to an RTP sequence number of the RTP packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

means for setting the third portion of the reference to a sequence number of the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the stream of transport packets comprises a stream of UDP packets, and the reference comprises a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion, and the means for generating further comprises:

means for setting the first portion of the reference to a UDP flow identifier of the UDP packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

means for generating a checksum over the UDP packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

means for setting the second portion of the reference to the checksum; and

means for setting the third portion of the reference to a sequence number of the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.