Method and apparatus for utilizing the available bit rate in a constrained variable bit rate channel
First Claim
1. A method for communicating information onto a channel, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving at least one encoded information stream having a variable bit rate that is varied by external control other than the variations that can inherently occur in the information stream due to time-varying data and placing the encoded information stream into a buffer; and
controlling the rate of transmission of the at least one encoded information stream based on the degree of fullness of the buffer so that the variable bit rate of the at least one encoded information stream is transformed into a constrained variable bit rate.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for utilizing the available bit rate in a constrained variable bit rate channel is described. The system receives one or more encoded information streams, each having a variable bit rate. Rate control circuitry controls the rate of transmission of the encoded information streams so that the variable bit rate of the streams is transformed into a constrained variable bit rate, in which the variable bit rate is limited to a predetermined maximum value. A multiplexer multiplexes the encoded information streams for transmission over a channel. The channel may comprise a 6 MHz television channel. The multiplexer also multiplexes the encoded information streams with a secondary information stream for transmission over the channel. For purposes of multiplexer selection of information streams, the secondary information stream is assigned a lower priority than the encoded information streams. The encoded information streams may, for example, carry video data, whereas the secondary information stream may, for example, carry application data. The multiplexer may select from among the encoded information streams according to a round-robin scheme. The rate of the secondary information stream depends upon the rates of the encoded information streams. The rate of the secondary information stream may be controlled by a transmission control protocol, where the rate is adjusted by adjusting a transmit window of the protocol.
278 Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method for communicating information onto a channel, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving at least one encoded information stream having a variable bit rate that is varied by external control other than the variations that can inherently occur in the information stream due to time-varying data and placing the encoded information stream into a buffer; and controlling the rate of transmission of the at least one encoded information stream based on the degree of fullness of the buffer so that the variable bit rate of the at least one encoded information stream is transformed into a constrained variable bit rate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An apparatus for communicating information onto a channel, the apparatus comprising:
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a buffer receptive of at least one encoded information stream having a variable bit rate that is varied by external control other than the variations that can inherently occur in the information stream due to time-varying data; and a controller that controls the rate of transmission of the at least one encoded information stream based on the degree of fullness of the buffer so that the variable rate of the at least one encoded information stream is transformed into a constrained variable bit rate. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A constrained variable bit rate encoder device, comprising:
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a variable bit rate encoder receptive of video data, the variable bit rate encoder generating as an output compressed video data at a variable bit rate known as the encoder rate, the encoder rate being externally controllable; a buffer receptive of the compressed video data; a transmit processor that can access the compressed video data and transmit compressed video data at a variable rate known as the transmit rate, the transmit rate being externally controllable; and a channel rate controller that is in communication with each of the variable bit rate encoder, the buffer, and the transmit processor, wherein the controller monitors the degree to which the buffer is full, and in response thereto the controller controls the encoder rate of the variable bit rate encoder and the transmit rate of the transmit processor to govern the overall rate at which the constrained variable bit rate encoder device outputs data. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method of constraining the variable bit rate of a video data stream to optimize the quality of the video image represented by the video data stream while minimizing the inefficiency of utilizing a bit rate that is any greater than necessary to optimize the quality of the video image and while preventing the bit rate from being higher than a predetermined threshold, the method comprising:
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encoding the video data at a variable bit rate, the encoder rate; storing the encoded data in a buffer; transmitting the video data from the buffer at a variable rate, the transmit rate; monitoring the degree of fullness of the buffer; adjusting the encoder rate and the transmit rate in response to the degree of fullness of the buffer; and limiting the transmit rate to be less than or equal to a predetermined threshold.
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Specification