Implementing a High Quality VOIP Device

• US 20110103377A1
• Filed: 03/07/2008
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ArcSoft, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ArcSoft, Inc.
• Inventors: Zhou, Huagui, Zhuang, Zhishan, Hua, Yonghong
• Granted Patent: US 8,873,543 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1053 IP private branch exchange [PBX] functionality entities or arrangements circuit switched PBXs H04M3/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

A method is provided for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) devices to communicate over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The method includes synchronizing the VoIP devices using one or more dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) codes over a telephone network, retransmissions of voice packets in bursts, retransmissions of voice packets following a time lag, adjusting the number of retransmissions based on quality of service, retransmission of a missing voice packet identified in a list received from a peer device, discarding low energy voice frames in a jitter buffer to prevent overflow, stopping playout at a low energy voice frame when the jitter buffer is below a minimum buffer size, and selective transmission and retransmission of voice packets based on their energy levels.

Claims

1. A method for a first Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) device to communicate with a second VoIP device over an Internet Protocol (IP) network, comprising:

communicating at least one dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) code with the second VoIP device over a telephone network to synchronize the first and the second VoIP devices;

recording a local time at the first VoIP device when the first and the second VoIP devices are synchronized by said communicating as a first synchronization base time;

keeping a first synchronization time comprising the local time at the first VoIP device minus the first synchronization base time;

transmitting a first voice packet to the second VoIP device over the IP network, the first voice packet including the first synchronization time when the first voice packet was transmitted;

receiving a second voice packet from the second VoIP device over the IP network, the second voice packet including a second synchronization time when the second voice packet was transmitted from the second VoIP device, the second synchronization time comprising a local time at the second VoIP device minus a second synchronization base time at the second VoIP device, the second synchronization base time comprising the local time at the second VoIP device when the first and the second VoIP devices are synchronized from said communicating; and

determining a network delay as a difference between the first and the second synchronization times.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after said transmitting, retransmitting the first voice packet a number of times to the second VoIP devices.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said retransmitting the first voice packet occurs when the first voice packet has an energy level greater than a threshold.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the threshold depends on a network bandwidth.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said retransmitting occurs in time intervals of 5 ms or less.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein said retransmitting occurs after a time lag following said transmitting.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

setting a size of an effective region in an output buffer at the first VoIP device, the effective region being a time range following a write pointer in an output buffer; and

storing the first voice packet in the output buffer after said transmitting, wherein said retransmitting occurs only while the first voice packet is in the effective region.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second voice packet includes a minimum size of a jitter buffer at the second VoIP device and said setting a size of an effective region comprises setting the size of the effective region equal to half of the minimum size of the jitter buffer.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a missing voice packet from the second VoIP device after placing the second voice packet in the jitter buffer

generating a recent lost index (RLI) list identifying the missing voice packet; and

transmitting a third voice packet to the second VoIP device including the RLI list.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining an energy level of the missing voice packet from a recent frame energy (RFE) list in the second voice packet, wherein the missing voice packet is included in the RLI list when the energy level is higher than a threshold.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the RLI list includes a first portion comprising a sequence number of a last received voice packet from the second VoIP device, and a second portion comprising a string of 1 and 0 bits indicating if voice packets preceding the last received voice packet have been received.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

decreasing a size of a jitter buffer at the first VoIP device;

determining energy levels of voice frames in the jitter buffer; and

discarding voice frames with energy levels below a threshold.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

playing out a jitter buffer at the first VoIP device; and

when the jitter buffer is below a minimum buffer size, stopping playout when a last voice frame has an energy level below a threshold.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a missing voice packet not received by the second VoIP device from a recent lost index (RLI) list in the second voice packet; and

retrieving the missing voice packet from an output buffer at the first VoIP device and retransmitting the missing voice packet to the second VoIP device.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining energy levels of a voice frame to be included in the first voice packet and voice frames in a recent period of time;

generating a recent frame energy (RFE) list identifying energy levels of voice frames in a recent period of time; and

including the voice frame and the RFE list in the first voice packet.

16. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining the network bandwidth by determining a plurality of states of first VoIP device that corresponds to a plurality of network bandwidths.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein a first state that corresponds to a first network condition comprises:

increasing a number of said retransmitting until a maximum limit is reached or a packet loss rate of the first VoIP device stops to improve in response to said increasing;

when the maximum limit is reached, transitioning from the first state to a second state when a current packet loss rate is not less than a loss threshold; and

when the packet loss rate stops to improve, transitioning from the first state to the second state when a previous packet loss rate is not less than the loss threshold.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the second state that corresponds to a second network condition comprises:

increasing a number of links between the first and the second VoIP devices until a maximum limit is reached or a packet loss rate of the first VoIP device stops to improve in response to said increasing;

when the maximum limit is reached, transitioning from the second state to a third state when a current packet loss rate is not less than the loss threshold; and

when the packet loss rate stops to improve, transitioning from the second state to the third state when a previous packet loss rate is not less than the loss threshold.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the third state that corresponds to a third network condition comprises:

stopping transmitting voice packets having an energy level less than a first energy threshold; and

transitioning from the third state to a fourth state when a current packet loss rate is not less than the loss threshold.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the fourth state that corresponds to a fourth network condition comprises:

stopping transmitting voice packets having an energy level less than a second energy threshold; and

transitioning from the fourth state to one of the first, the second, the third, and the fourth states having a lowest packet loss rate when a current packet loss rate is not less than the loss threshold.