Method and apparatus for performing MPEG video streaming over bandwidth constrained networks

• US 20110067072A1
• Filed: 10/27/2009
• Published: 03/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Eunyoung, Haghani, Ehsan, Parekh, Shyam, Calin, Doru
• Application Number:
  US12/589,663
• Publication Number:
  US 20110067072A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/159 Prediction type, e.g. intra-frame, inter-frame or bidirectional frame prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/31 in the temporal domain
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/37 with arrangements for assigning different transmission priorities to video input data or to video coded data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/577 Motion compensation with bidirectional frame interpolation, i.e. using B-pictures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234327 by decomposing into layers, e.g. base layer and one or more enhancement layers
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006

Abstract

A method and apparatus for preserving the video quality of encoded video signals when transmitted over a communications network. The video signals may comprise Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) encoded video signals and the communications network may comprise a WiMAX or an LTE network. Illustratively, an MPEG encoded video signal is decomposed into three component video streams made up of I-frames, P-frames and B-frames, respectively. The three video streams may then be independently transmitted as separate and independent flows with different Quality of Service (QoS) levels. For example, the video stream comprising I-frames may be assigned a highest QoS level, while the video stream comprising B-frames may be assigned a lowest QoS level (with the video stream comprising P-frames assigned a QoS level therebetween). A receiver at the receiving end receives the independently transmitted video streams and combines them together to reproduce the encoded video signal.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting an encoded video signal across a communications network, the encoded video signal comprising a plurality of encoded video frames, each encoded video frame having been encoded in one of two or more different encoding formats, the method comprising the steps of:

decomposing, with use of a processor, the encoded video signal into two or more video streams, each video stream comprising frames which have been encoded in one or more mutually exclusive formats with respect to each of the other video streams; and

independently transmitting, with use of a transmitter, each of the two or more video streams across the communications network as separate and independent flows.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the encoded video signal has been encoded in accordance with a Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) encoding technique, and wherein the encoding formats include Intra-coded frames (I-frames), forward Predictive frames (P-frames) and Bi-directionally predicted frames (B-frames).

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the encoded video signal is decomposed into three video streams, the three video streams including a first video stream comprising exclusively I-frames, a second video stream comprising exclusively P-frames, and a third video stream comprising exclusively B-frames.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the independently transmitted video streams is transmitted with a different Quality of Service (QoS) level.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the QoS level of each transmitted video stream is based on a corresponding QoS set of parameters representative of a minimum reserved bandwidth which is to be associated therewith.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the video streams are being transmitted to one or more subscriber stations, the method further comprising the step of receiving QoS parameter values to be used to specify the QoS levels of each of said video streams from at least one of said subscriber stations.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the encoded video signal is provided by a video server, the method further comprising the step of receiving QoS parameter values to be used to specify the QoS levels of each of said video streams from the video server.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications network comprises one of a WiMAX network or an LTE network.

9. A method of receiving an encoded video signal from a communications network, the encoded video signal comprising a plurality of encoded video frames, each encoded video frame having been encoded in one of two or more different encoding formats, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving, with use of a receiver, two or more independently transmitted video streams as separate and independent flows, each video stream comprising frames which have been encoded in one or more mutually exclusive formats with respect to each of the other video streams; and

combining, with use of a processor, the received video frames to reproduce the encoded video signal.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the encoded video signal has been encoded in accordance with a Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) encoding technique, and wherein the encoding formats include Intra-coded frames (I-frames), forward Predictive frames (P-frames) and Bi-directionally predicted frames (B-frames).

11. The method of claim 10 wherein three independently transmitted video streams are received, the three video streams including a first video stream comprising exclusively I-frames, a second video stream comprising exclusively P-frames, and a third video stream comprising exclusively B-frames.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein each of the independently transmitted video streams has been transmitted with a different Quality of Service (QoS) level.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the QoS level of each transmitted video stream was based on a corresponding QoS set of parameters representative of a minimum reserved bandwidth which had been associated therewith.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the communications network comprises one of a WiMAX network or an LTE network.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein one or more of the frames comprised in one or more of the encoded video streams has been lost in transmission across the communications network.

16. An apparatus for transmitting an encoded video signal across a communications network, the encoded video signal comprising a plurality of encoded video frames, each encoded video frame having been encoded in one of two or more different encoding formats, the apparatus comprising:

a processor which decomposes the encoded video signal into two or more video streams, each video stream comprising frames which have been encoded in one or more mutually exclusive formats with respect to each of the other video streams; and

a transmitter which independently transmits each of the two or more video streams across the communications network as separate and independent flows.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the encoded video signal has been encoded in accordance with a Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) encoding technique, and wherein the encoding formats include Intra-coded frames (I-frames), forward Predictive frames (P-frames) and Bi-directionally predicted frames (B-frames).

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the encoded video signal is decomposed into three video streams, the three video streams including a first video stream comprising exclusively I-frames, a second video stream comprising exclusively P-frames, and a third video stream comprising exclusively B-frames.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein each of the independently transmitted video streams is transmitted with a different Quality of Service (QoS) level.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the QoS level of each transmitted video stream is based on a corresponding QoS set of parameters representative of a minimum reserved bandwidth which is to be associated therewith.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the video streams are being transmitted to one or more subscriber stations, the apparatus further comprising a receiver which receives QoS parameter values to be used to specify the QoS levels of each of said video streams from at least one of said subscriber stations.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the encoded video signal is provided by a video server, the method further comprising a receiver which receives QoS parameter values to be used to specify the QoS levels of each of said video streams from the video server.

23. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the communications network comprises one of a WiMAX network or an LTE network.

24. An apparatus for receiving an encoded video signal from a communications network, the encoded video signal comprising a plurality of encoded video frames, each encoded video frame having been encoded in one of two or more different encoding formats, the apparatus comprising:

a receiver which receives two or more independently transmitted video streams as separate and independent flows, each video stream comprising frames which have been encoded in one or more mutually exclusive formats with respect to each of the other video streams; and

a processor which combines the received video frames to reproduce the encoded video signal.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the encoded video signal has been encoded in accordance with a Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) encoding technique, and wherein the encoding formats include Intra-coded frames (I-frames), forward Predictive frames (P-frames) and Bi-directionally predicted frames (B-frames).

26. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein three independently transmitted video streams are received, the three video streams including a first video stream comprising exclusively I-frames, a second video stream comprising exclusively P-frames, and a third video stream comprising exclusively B-frames.

27. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein each of the independently transmitted video streams has been transmitted with a different Quality of Service (QoS) level.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein the QoS level of each transmitted video stream was based on a corresponding QoS set of parameters representative of a minimum reserved bandwidth which had been associated therewith.

29. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the communications network comprises one of a WiMAX network or an LTE network.

30. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein one or more of the frames comprised in one or more of the encoded video streams has been lost in transmission across the communications network.