JOINT TRANSMISSION OF MULTIPLE MULTIMEDIA STREAMS

• US 20120219013A1
• Filed: 05/04/2012
• Published: 08/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Gardner, William R., Lane, Richard D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,065,884 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/468
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234327 by decomposing into layers, e.g. base layer and one or more enhancement layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2385 Channel allocation H04N21/266 takes precedence; Bandwidth allocation H04N21/24 takes precedence ; allocation of channels according to the instantaneous demands of the users in time-division multiplex systems H04J3/1682; admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896; negotiating bandwidth in wireless networks H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/52 Systems for transmission of a pulse code modulated video signal with one or more other pulse code modulated signals, e.g. an audio signal or a synchronizing signal assembling of a multiplex stream by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, remultiplexing of multiplex streams, insertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, assembling of a packetised elementary stream at server side H04N21/236; disassembling of a multiplex stream, remultiplexing of multiplex streams, extraction or processing of Service Information, disassembling of packetised elementary stream at client side H04N21/434

Abstract

A system and method for multimedia data transmission including pooling, by a computer, at least first and second multimedia data streams together in a single channel, wherein each stream defines a respective sequence of frames and each frame includes at least a base layer and at least one enhancement layer; dynamically establishing, by the computer, first and second bit rates respectively associated with the first and second streams; and transmitting, by a transmitter, the at least first and second streams on the channel.

Claims

1. A method for multimedia data transmission, comprising:

pooling, by a computer, at least first and second multimedia data streams together in a single channel, wherein each stream defines a respective sequence of frames and each frame includes at least a base layer and at least one enhancement layer;

dynamically establishing, by the computer, first and second bit rates respectively associated with the first and second streams; and

transmitting, by a transmitter, the at least first and second streams on the channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the channel is one of:

a broadcast channel, a multicast channel, and a unicast channel.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one QOS metric is a signal-to-noise ratio.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein either stream is constituted using an MPEG principle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the streams are quantized jointly.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising, by the computer, a benefit of adding bits to the stream for each stream during quantization.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically establishing the first and second bit rates is based at least partially on the evaluating act.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the bit rates are established to provide surplus channel bandwidth useful for sending ancillary data.

9. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions for execution on a computer to perform a method comprising:

pooling at least first and second multimedia data streams together in a single channel, wherein each stream defines a respective sequence of frames and each frame includes at least a base layer and at least one enhancement layer;

dynamically establishing first and second bit rates respectively associated with the first and second streams; and

transmitting the at least first and second streams on the channel.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the channel is at least one of:

a broadcast channel, a multicast channel, and a unicast channel.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein either stream is constituted using MPEG principles.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the streams are quantized jointly, and, during quantization, evaluating for each stream a benefit of adding bits to the stream.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein dynamically establishing first and second bit rates at least in part depends on the evaluating of the benefit of adding bits to each stream.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the bit rates are established to provide surplus channel bandwidth useful for sending ancillary data.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the method uses at least one relative importance metric.

16. A system for transmitting at least first and second multimedia streams in a single channel, comprising:

means for establishing a first bit rate for the first stream during a first frame of the first stream;

means for establishing a second bit rate for the first stream during a second frame of the first stream, the first and second bit rates being different from each other;

means for pooling the at least first and second multimedia data streams together in a single channel;

means for dynamically establishing first and second bit rates respectively associated with the first and second streams, wherein each stream defines a respective sequence of frames and each frame includes at least a base layer and at least one enhancement layer; and

means for transmitting the at least first and second streams on the channel.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the metric is a signal-to-noise ratio.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the streams are quantized jointly, and further comprising:

means for, during quantization, evaluating a benefit of adding bits to each stream.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the bit rates are established to provide surplus channel bandwidth useful for sending ancillary data.

20. A system for multimedia data transmission, comprising:

a computer configured to pool at least first and second multimedia data streams together in a single channel, wherein each stream defines a respective sequence of frames and each frame includes at least a base layer and at least one enhancement layer, and dynamically establish first and second bit rates respectively associated with the first and second streams; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the at least first and second streams.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein either stream is constituted using an MPEG principle.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising a quantizer configured to quantize the streams jointly.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the quantizer is further configured to evaluate benefit of adding bits to each stream.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the bit rates are established to provide surplus channel bandwidth useful for sending ancillary data.