Locating Points of Interest Using References to Media Frames Within a Packet Flow

• US 20150163274A1
• Filed: 02/18/2015
• Published: 06/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: VerSteeg, William C., Oran, David, Drisko, Robert, Gahm, Joshua
• Granted Patent: US 9,762,640 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234381 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. decreasing the frame rate by frame skipping
• 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 21/4384 involving operations to reduce the access time, e.g. fast-tuning for reducing channel switching latency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6437 Real-time Transport Protocol [RTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method comprises receiving a stream of transport packets encapsulating media packets, and generating a reference to the point-of-interest media packet relative to the location of the point-of-interest within the transport packet stream. The reference is generated for each media packet that is identified as a point-of-interest.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a stream of transport packets encapsulating media packets; and

generating, for each media packet that is identified as a point-of-interest (POI), a reference to the POI media packet relative to the location of the POI within the transport packet stream.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying one or more of the media packets as the point-of-interest.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the stream of transport packets comprises receiving the stream of transport packets comprising a stream of UDP packets.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the reference comprises generating the reference comprising a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein generating the reference comprises setting the first portion of the reference to a UDP flow identifier of the UDP packet encapsulating the POI media packet.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein generating the reference comprises generating a checksum over the UDP packet encapsulating the POI media packet.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein generating the reference comprises setting the second portion of the reference to the checksum.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein generating the reference comprises setting the third portion of the reference to a sequence number of the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

9. A system comprising:

memory with logic; and

a processor configured with the logic to;

receive a stream of transport packets encapsulating media packets; and

generate, for each media packet that is identified as a point-of-interest (POI), a reference to the POI media packet relative to the location of the POI within the transport packet stream.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to identify one or more of the media packets as the point-of-interest.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor configured with the logic to receive the stream of transport packets comprises the processor configured with the logic to receive the stream of transport packets comprising a stream of UDP packets.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor configured with the logic to generate the reference comprises the processor configured with the logic to generate the reference comprising a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor configured with the logic to generate the reference comprises the processor configured with the logic to set the first portion of the reference to a UDP flow identifier of the UDP packet encapsulating the POI media packet.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor configured with the logic to generate the reference comprises the processor configured with the logic to generate a checksum over the UDP packet encapsulating the POI media packet.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the processor configured with the logic to generate the reference comprises the processor configured with the logic to set the second portion of the reference to the checksum.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor configured with the logic to generate the reference comprises the processor configured with the logic to set the third portion of the reference to a sequence number of the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:

receiving a stream of transport packets encapsulating media packets; and

generating, for each media packet that is identified as a point-of-interest (POI), a reference to the POI media packet relative to the location of the POI within the transport packet stream.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein receiving the stream of transport packets comprises receiving the stream of transport packets comprising a stream of UDP packets.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein generating the reference comprises generating the reference comprising a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, further comprising:

setting the first portion of the reference to a UDP flow identifier of the UDP packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

generating a checksum over the UDP packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

setting the second portion of the reference to the checksum; and

setting the third portion of the reference to a sequence number of the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.