Two-way information transmission system, two-way information transmission method and subscriber terminal device

• US 5,943,047 A
• Filed: 03/27/1997
• Issued: 08/24/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Suzuki, Mitsuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Srivastava, Vivek
• Application Number:
  US08/824,488
• Time in Patent Office: 880 Days
• Field of Search: 345/327, 348/12, 348/13, 348/10, 348/6, 348/7, 455/5.1, 455/4.2, 455/6.2, 455/6.3, 455/3.1
• US Class Current: 715/719
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/33 by plural channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/69 Optical systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/76 Wired systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/79 using downlink of the CATV systems, e.g. audio broadcast via CATV network
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/04 Studio equipment; Interconnection of studios
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/97 using uplink of the CATV systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

The subscriber terminal ms sends the demand including at least information for identifying the demand subscriber terminal, information for identifying the requested information, and information relating to the urgency of the requested information to the information distribution transmission center HE through an going-up line. The information distribution transmission center HE plans a transmission schedule of the information to be transmitted based on the demand from the subscriber terminal ms, and transmits the transmission schedule information included in the down-going control data to the subscriber terminal which sent the demand prior to the actual transmission, and transmits the requested information according to the above-mentioned transmission schedule. The subscriber terminal ms receives and analyzes the down-going control data from the information distribution transmission center HE and is informed of the transmission schedule, and acquires the information to be transmitted based on the obtained transmission plan, stores the acquired information in a large scale memory, and reads the information from the memory means for use. A video on-demand system can be realized without introducing a large scale system such as video server and with a relatively small investment, and the centralization of traffic is mitigated, and the network resource is used efficiently.

Claims

1. A two-way information transmission system provided with an information distribution transmission center and at least one subscriber terminal connected to said information distribution transmission center via an up-going line and a down-going line, said subscriber terminal sending an information distribution transmission request to said information distribution transmission center through said up-going line, and said information distribution transmission center transmitting requested information in response to said request through said down-going line, said two-way information transmission system comprising:

an information distribution transmission center including;

transmission planning means for planning a transmission plan to transmit requested information based on an information distribution transmission request from a subscriber terminal,

transmission means for transmitting said requested information based on said transmission plan planned by said transmission planning means,

a plurality of transmission channels allocated for use for a plurality of urgency levels, wherein a number of said plurality of transmission channels allocated for a high urgency level increases in accordance with an increase in a number of requests for information distribution transmission, and

down-going control data sending means for sending down-going control data including information involving said transmission plan planned by said transmission planning means to said subscriber terminal which sent said information distribution transmission request, before said transmission means transmits said requested information; and

a subscriber terminal including;

distribution transmission request sending means for sending said information distribution transmission request including at least information for identifying said subscriber terminal making said request, information for identifying said requested information, and urgency information relating to an urgency level of said requested information, said urgency information including a real time transmission request,

memory means,

transmission plan receiving analysis means for receiving and analyzing said transmission plan based on said down-going control data from said information distribution transmission center,

information acquisition means for acquiring said requested information transmitted from said information distribution transmission center based on said transmission plan and storing said requested information in said memory means, wherein when said urgency information is a real time transmission request said requested information transmitted from said information distribution transmission center is supplied without being stored in said memory means, and when said urgency information is other than said real time transmission request said requested information is stored in said memory means, said requested information having been acquired by said transmission plan receiving analysis means, and

reading means for reading said information from said memory means.

2. The two-way information transmission system as claimed in claim 1, wherein

said urgency information included in said information distribution transmission request specifies any one of said plurality of urgency levels which have different respective delay times from said distribution transmission request to transmission of said requested information depending on said urgency level of said urgency information, and

said transmission planning means determines a transmission time based on said urgency level included in said information distribution transmission request.

3. The two-way information transmission system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said information distribution transmission center transmits in real time in response to said real time transmission request which requests immediate transmission, and transmits in a free channel of an available time zone when said urgency information allows for a time delay before transmission.

4. The two-way information transmission system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said transmission means transmits said requested information after data compression, and selects a data compression method from a plurality of data compression methods according to a type of information to be transmitted.

5. The two-way information transmission system as claimed in claim 4, wherein

at least one of said plurality of data compression methods used by said transmission means transmits said requested information at a speed faster than a data transmission speed of information regenerated in real time in said subscriber terminal, and

said memory means of said subscriber terminal stores said transmitted requested information at a high speed.

6. The two-way information transmission system as claimed in claim 1, wherein

said memory means comprises a plurality of recording devices disposed in parallel, said plurality of recording devices including tape type recording media, sheet type recording media, card type recording media, disk type recording media, and semiconductor memories, and

said information acquisition means records said information in a recording device selected from said plurality of recording devices depending on a volume of said information to be stored and a degree of random access required.

7. A method of two-way information transmission in which a subscriber terminal requests an information distribution transmission from an information distribution transmission center through an up-going line, and said information distribution transmission center transmits said requested information in a down-going line in response to said information distribution transmission request, said method comprising steps of:

said subscriber terminal sending an information distribution transmission request including at least information for identifying said subscriber terminal sending said request, information for identifying said requested information, and urgency information relating to an urgency level of said requested information, said urgency information including a real time transmission request;

said information distribution transmission center planning a transmission schedule of said requested information to be transmitted based on said information distribution transmission request from said subscriber terminal, and transmitting said planned transmission schedule to said subscriber terminal which requested said information distribution transmission request in down-going control data prior to transmission of said requested information, and transmitting said requested information according to said planned transmission schedule;

said information distribution transmission center allocating a plurality of transmission channels for use for a plurality of urgency levels, wherein a number of said plurality of transmission channels allocated for a high urgency level increases in accordance with an increase in a number of requests for information distribution transmission; and

said subscriber terminal receiving said transmission plan and analyzing said down-going control data from said information distribution transmission center, acquiring said requested information transmitted from said information distribution transmission center based on said transmission plan, storing said acquired information in memory means having a large capacity when said urgency information is other than a real time transmission request, and providing said information read from said memory means for use, wherein when said urgency information is a real time transmission request said acquired information is supplied for use without being stored in said memory means.

8. The method of two-way information transmission as claimed in claim 7, wherein said information distribution transmission center transmits in real time in response to said real time transmission request which requests immediate transmission included in said information distribution transmission request from said subscriber terminal, and transmits in a free channel of an available time zone when said urgency information allows for a time delay before transmission.

9. The method of two-way information transmission as claimed in claim 7, wherein

said urgency information included in said information distribution transmission request specifies any one of said plurality of urgency levels each having a different delay time from a distribution transmission request to transmission of said requested information, and

a communication capacity of said down-going line is allocated and assigned separately for each urgency level of said plurality of urgency levels.

10. The method of two-way information transmission as claimed in claim 9, wherein said communication capacity assigned to each urgency level is variable depending on a transmission time zone and day of a week.

11. A subscriber terminal of a plurality of subscriber terminals respectively connected to an information distribution transmission center through up-going lines and down-going lines, in which said subscriber terminal requests transmission of information from said information distribution transmission center through said up-going line, and said information distribution transmission center transmits said requested information through a down-going line in response to said request for transmission of information, said subscriber terminal comprising:

distribution transmission request sending means for sending an information distribution transmission request including at least information for identifying said subscriber terminal making said request, information for identifying information requested for transmission, and urgency information relating to an urgency level of said requested information, said urgency information including a real time transmission request;

memory means;

transmission plan receiving analysis means for acquiring a transmission plan of information to be transmitted, said transmission plan being planned by said information distribution transmission center based on said information distribution transmission request from said subscriber terminal, by referring to control data sent from said information distribution transmission center;

information acquisition means for acquiring said requested information transmitted from said information distribution transmission center and storing said acquired information in said memory means when said urgency information is other than a real time transmission request based on said transmission plan acquired by said transmission plan receiving analysis means, wherein when said urgency information is a real time transmission request said acquired information is supplied for use without being stored in said memory means; and

reading means for reading information from said memory means, wherein

said information distribution transmission center allocates a plurality of transmission channels for use for a plurality of urgency levels such that a number of said plurality of transmission channels allocated for a high urgency level increases in accordance with an increase in a number of requests for information distribution transmission.