SYSTEM FOR MEASURING THE TRANSMISSION BANDWIDTH FOR MULTIMEDIA STREAMING AND METHOD FOR SAME

• US 20110149763A1
• Filed: 06/15/2009
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SK Planet Co., Ltd. (SK Telecom Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Bae, Tae Meon
• Granted Patent: US 8,582,453 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0002 by adapting the transmission rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0018 based on latency requirement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

A method and system for measuring a transmission bandwidth which includes: a server for transmitting packets of multimedia data to a receiving apparatus, receiving a time stamp from the receiving apparatus, calculating a transmission bandwidth in real time from the received time stamp, and streaming the multimedia data to the receiving apparatus in accordance with the calculated transmission bandwidth; with the receiving apparatus receiving packets of the multimedia data from the server, recording received time stamp for each of received packets, and transmitting the received time stamp to the server by a predetermined cycle. According to the present invention, transmission bandwidth is measured using data actually transmitted and that streaming of media is suited to a transmission bandwidth to meet QoS (Quality of Service) requirements.

Claims

1. A system for measuring a transmission bandwidth, comprising:

a server for transmitting packets of multimedia data to a reception apparatus, receiving a time stamp of a received time for each of the packets from the reception apparatus, calculating a transmission bandwidth based on the time stamp of each of the packets, and streaming the multimedia data to the reception apparatus based on the calculated transmission bandwidths; and

the reception apparatus for receiving the packets of the multimedia data from the server, recording the time stamps of the respective packets, and transmitting the time stamps to the server in a predetermined cycle.

2. A server, comprising:

a communication unit for communicating with a reception apparatus;

a data transmission unit for transmitting packets of multimedia data to the reception apparatus;

a bandwidth calculation unit for calculating a transmission bandwidth based on a time stamp of a received time for each of the packets received from the reception apparatus; and

a control unit for controlling the data transmission unit so that the data transmission unit transmits the packets of the multimedia data, controlling the bandwidth calculation unit so that the bandwidth calculation unit calculates the transmission bandwidth based on the time stamp of each of the packets received from the reception apparatus, and controlling the multimedia data based on the calculated transmission bandwidths so that the multimedia data is streamed on the reception apparatus.

3. The server according to claim 2, further comprising a storage unit for storing a size of each of the packets of the multimedia data and the time stamp of each of the packets so that the size and the time stamp corresponding to the packet.

4. The server according to claim 2, wherein the bandwidth calculation unit calculates the transmission bandwidth by dividing a size L_i of a packet transmitted to the reception apparatus at an i^th position, from among the packets, by a time interval tr_i+1−

tr_i between a time when the reception apparatus receives the i^th packet and a time when the reception apparatus receives a specific packet following the i^th packet.

5. The server according to claim 4, wherein the bandwidth calculation unit calculates a final transmission bandwidth of the packets by taking a median of a certain number of transmission bandwidths calculated for the packets.

6. A reception apparatus, comprising:

a communication unit for communicating with a server;

a reception time storage unit for recording and storing a time stamp of a received time for each of packets of multimedia data received from the server; and

a control unit for controlling the time stamps of the packets of the multimedia data so that the time stamps are transmitted to the server in a predetermined cycle.

7. The reception apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the control unit controls the multimedia data based on transmission bandwidths, calculated based on the time stamps of the packets, so that the multimedia data is received from the server, after the time stamps of the packets are transmitted to the server in the predetermined cycle.

8. A method of a system, including a server and a reception apparatus, measuring a transmission bandwidth, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) the server transmitting packets of multimedia data to the reception apparatus;

(b) the reception apparatus receiving the packets of the multimedia data and transmitting a time stamp of a received time for each of the received packets;

(c) the server receiving the time stamp of the packet from the reception apparatus and calculating a transmission bandwidth based on the time stamp of the packet; and

(d) the server streaming the multimedia data on the reception apparatus based on the calculated transmission bandwidth.

9. A method of a server, streaming multimedia data on a reception apparatus, measuring a transmission bandwidth, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) transmitting packets of the multimedia data to the reception apparatus;

(b) receiving a time stamp of a received time for each of the packets from the reception apparatus; and

(c) calculating the transmission bandwidth based on the time stamp of the packet.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the step (c) comprises calculating the transmission bandwidth by dividing a size L_i of a packet transmitted to the reception apparatus at an i^th position, from among the packets, by a time interval tr_i+1-tr_i between a time when the reception apparatus receives the i^th packet and a time when the reception apparatus receives a specific packet following the i^th packet.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the step (c) comprises calculating a final transmission bandwidth of packets by taking a median of a certain number of transmission bandwidths calculated for the packets.

12. The method according to claim 9, further comprising the step of (d) streaming the multimedia data to the reception apparatus based on the calculated final transmission bandwidth.