Redundant Data Dispersal In Transmission Of Video Data Based On Frame Type

• US 20130028320A1
• Filed: 08/01/2012
• Published: 01/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gardner, James
• Granted Patent: US 8,442,115 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/51 Motion estimation or motion compensation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/577 Motion compensation with bidirectional frame interpolation, i.e. using B-pictures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/66 involving data partitioning, i.e. separation of data into packets or partitions according to importance
• 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 21/2383 Channel coding or modulation of digital bit-stream, e.g. QPSK modulation arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by adapting the channel coding H04L1/0009; analogue front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/631 Multimode Transmission, e.g. transmitting basic layers and enhancement layers of the content over different transmission paths or transmitting with different error corrections, different keys or with different transmission protocols

Abstract

The transmitting end of a content distribution system selectively employs a redundancy mechanism to encode video data. In the event that a particular frame contains information upon which the decoding of multiple frames may depend, the transmitting end can apply a redundancy mechanism to redundantly distribute the data of the frame throughout a set of data segments, each of which is separately transmitted via the network to the receiving end. Otherwise, in the event that a particular frame to be transmitted does not contain substantial information upon which the decoding of multiple frames may depend, the loss of some or all of the data of the frame may not appreciably affect the presentation of the video content at the receiving end and thus the transmitting end can forgo application of the redundancy mechanism to such frames so as to avoid unnecessary processing and reduce the overall network bandwidth used.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a system including a processor, encoded video data comprising a plurality of data frames;

for each predictive coded frame (P frame) of the plurality of data frames having an original data size greater than a threshold size;

generating a first plurality of data segments from data representative of the P frame such that a first data size of the first plurality of data segments is sufficient to create redundancy in the first plurality of data segments to enable a multimedia receiver to reconstruct the P frame after a corruption of a subset of the first plurality of data segments; and

for each P frame of the plurality of frames for which the original data size is less than the threshold size;

generating a second plurality of data segments from data representative of the P frame, wherein an entirety of the data representative of the P frame is unrecoverable after a corruption of a subset of the second plurality of data segments.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising separately transmitting, by the system, each of the first plurality of data segments in a corresponding network packet for receipt by the multimedia receiver.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the system, the second plurality of data segments in one or more network packets for receipt by the multimedia receiver.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the first plurality of data segments from data representative of the P frame comprises generating the first plurality of data segments using an Information Dispersal Algorithm (IDA) for the data representative of the P frame.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating by the system, for each intra coded frame (I frame) of the plurality of frames, a third plurality of data segments from data representative of the I frame such that a second data size of the third plurality of data segments is sufficient to create redundancy in the third plurality of data segments to enable the multimedia receiver to reconstruct the I frame after a corruption of a subset of the third plurality of data segments.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising separately transmitting, by the system, each of the third plurality of data segments in a corresponding network packet for receipt by the multimedia receiver.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating by the system, for each bi-directional coded frame (B frame) of the plurality of data frames, a fourth plurality of data segments from data representative of the B frame, wherein an entirety of the data representative of the B frame is unrecoverable after a corruption of a subset of the fourth plurality of data segments.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising transmitting, by the system, the fourth plurality of data segments in one or more network packets for receipt by the multimedia receiver.

9. A device, comprising:

a memory storing encoded video data comprising a plurality of data frames;

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the memory further comprises computer instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

generating, for each predictive coded frame (P frame) of the plurality of data frames having an original data size greater than a threshold size, a first plurality of data segments from data representative of the P frame such that a first data size of the first plurality of data segments is sufficient to create redundancy in the first plurality of data segments to enable a multimedia receiver to reconstruct the P frame after corruption of a subset of the first plurality of data segments; and

generating, for each P frame of the plurality of data frames for which the original data size is less than the threshold size, a second plurality of data segments from data representative of the P frame, wherein an entirety of the data representative of the P frame is unrecoverable after a corruption of a subset of the second plurality of data segments.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the processor, responsive to executing the computer instructions, performs operations further comprising,

transmitting separately each of the first plurality of data segments in a corresponding network packet for receipt by the multimedia receiver;

and

transmitting the second plurality of data segments in one or more network packets for receipt by the multimedia receiver.

11. The device of claim 9, wherein the processor, responsive to executing the computer instructions, performs operations comprising for each intra coded frame (I frame) of the plurality of frames:

generating a third plurality of data segments from data representative of the I frame such that a second data size of the third plurality of data segments is sufficient to create redundancy in the third plurality of data segments to enable the multimedia receiver to reconstruct the I frame after a corruption of a subset of the third plurality of data segments; and

separately transmitting each of the third plurality of data segments in a corresponding network packet for receipt by the multimedia receiver.

12. The device of claim 9, wherein the processor, responsive to executing the computer instructions, performs operations comprising for each bi-directional coded frame (B frame) of the plurality of frames:

generating a fourth plurality of data segments from data representative of the B frame, an entirety of the data representative of the B frame being unrecoverable after a corruption of a subset of the fourth plurality of data segments; and

transmitting the fourth plurality of data segments in one or more network packets for receipt by the multimedia receiver.

13. The device of claim 9, wherein generating the first plurality of data segments from data representative of the P frame comprises generating the first plurality of data segments using an Information Dispersal Algorithm (IDA) for the data representative of the P frame.

14. The device of claim 9, further comprising, in communication with the processor, a redundancy mechanism redundantly distributing data representative of the data frame throughout the respective plurality of data segments, each resulting plurality of data segments having a total size greater than the a total size of the respective data representative of the data frame.

15. A non-transitory, computer readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions which, responsive to being executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

providing a first plurality of data segments in one or more network packets to the network for transmission to a multimedia receiver;

for each predictive coded frame (P frame) of a plurality of data frames having an original data size greater than a threshold size;

generating a first plurality of data segments from data representative of the P frame such that a first data size of the first plurality of data segments is sufficient to create redundancy in the first plurality of data segments to enable the multimedia receiver to reconstruct the P frame after a corruption of a subset of the first plurality of data segments; and

providing each of the first plurality of data segments in a separate corresponding network packet to the network for transmission to the multimedia receiver; and

for each P frame of the plurality of frames for which the original data size is less than the threshold size;

generating a second plurality of data segments from data representative of the P frame, wherein an entirety of the data representative of the P frame is unrecoverable after a corruption of a subset of the second plurality of data segments; and

providing the second plurality of data segments in one or more network packets to the network for transmission to the multimedia receiver.

16. The non-transitory, computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein separately transmitting each of the first plurality of data segments in a corresponding network packet for receipt by the multimedia receiver comprises using a network interface.

17. The non-transitory, computer readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising computer instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising for each intra coded frame (I frame) of a plurality of data frames of an encoded video data:

generating a first plurality of data segments from data representative of the I frame such that a second data size of the first plurality of data segments is sufficient to create redundancy in the first plurality of data segments to enable the multimedia receiver to reconstruct the I frame after corruption of a subset of the first plurality of data segments; and

providing each of the first plurality of data segments in a separate corresponding network packet to a network for transmission to the multimedia receiver.

18. The non-transitory, computer readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising computer instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising for each bi-directional coded frame (B frame) of the plurality of data frames:

generating a second plurality of data segments from data representative of the B frame, wherein an entirety of the data representative of the B frame is unrecoverable after a corruption of a subset of the second plurality of data segments; and

providing the second plurality of data segments in one or more network packets to the network for transmission to the multimedia receiver.

19. The non-transitory, computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein generating the first plurality of data segments from data representative of the P frame comprises generating the first plurality of data segments using an Information Dispersal Algorithm (IDA) for the data representative of the P frame.

20. The non-transitory, computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the processor, responsive to executing the computer instructions, performs operations comprising redundantly distributing data representative of the data frame throughout the respective plurality of data segments, the resulting plurality of data segments having a total size greater than the a total size of the data representative of the data frame.