Demultiplexer

• US 6,628,678 B2
• Filed: 05/06/1998
• Issued: 09/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony United Kingdom Limited (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony United Kingdom Limited (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Hurley, Terrence Ralph, Temple, Daniel Alexander, Waller, Arthur Simon
• Primary Examiner(s): VANDERPUYE, KENNETH N
• Application Number:
  US09/073,682
• Publication Number:
  US 20030147430A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,973 Days
• Field of Search: 370/536, 370/542, 370/395.1, 370/395.64, 370/389, 348/385.1, 348/423
• US Class Current: 370/536
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/434 Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Extraction or processing of SI; Disassembling of packetised elementary stream demultiplexing of data packets for data networks, e.g. RTP/UDP H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4381 Recovering the multiplex stream from a specific network, e.g. recovering MPEG packets from ATM cells transmission of MPEG streams over ATM H04L12/5601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64307 ATM

Abstract

A demultiplexer for selectively demultiplexing ATM signals and MPEG signals received at an input of the demultiplexer, the demultiplexer comprising an MPEG demultiplexer for demultiplexing an MPEG transport stream, an ATM section for identifying MPEG transport stream data in an ATM signal, and a selection unit for selectively connecting the input to the MPEG demultiplexer or the ATM section according to whether the received signal is an MPEG signal or an ATM signal, wherein the demultiplexer comprises a memory shared between the demultiplexer and the ATM section and the ATM section processes ATM signals by storing the received signals in the memory and providing the MPEG demultiplexer with addresses appropriate for the MPEG demultiplexer to retrieve demultiplexed data from the memory.

Claims

1. A demultiplexer for selectively demultiplexing ATM signals and MPEG signals received at an input of the demultiplexer, the demultiplexer comprising:

an MPEG demultiplexer for demultiplexing an MPEG transport stream;

an ATM section for identifying MPEG transport stream data in an ATM signal; and

means for selectively connecting the input to the MPEG demultiplexer or the ATM section according to whether the received signal is an MPEG signal or an ATM signal,

wherein the demultiplexer includes a memory shared between the MPEG demultiplexer and the ATM section, and the ATM section processes ATM signals by storing the received signals in the memory, and providing the MPEG demultiplexer with addresses appropriate for the MPEG demultiplexer to retrieve demultiplexed data from the memory.

2. A demultiplexer according to claim 1, wherein the ATM section includes means for recovering ATM PDUs from ATM cells and for identifying the ATM PDUs by appropriate addresses for the memory.

3. A demultiplexer according to claim 2, wherein the ATM section includes means for recovering ATM cells from a pseudo MPEG transport stream and for identifying the ATM cells by appropriate addresses for the memory.

4. A demultiplexer according to claim 1, wherein the ATM section and MPEG demultiplexer are connected to the memory via a common data bus.

5. A demultiplexer according to claim 1 wherein, the demultiplexer is formed as a single integrated circuit.

6. A television decoding apparatus including a demultiplexer according to claim 1.

7. A method for selectively demultiplexing ATM signals and MPEG signals received at an input of a demultiplexer, comprising the steps of:

selectively connecting the input to a MPEG demultiplexer or an ATM section according to whether the received signal is an MPEG signal or an ATM signal;

demultiplexing an MPEG transport stream using the MPEG demultiplexer; and

identifying MPEG transport stream data in an ATM signal using the ATM section,

processing the ATM signals by the ATM section by storing the received signals in a memory, and

providing the MPEG demultiplexer with addresses appropriate for the MPEG demultiplexer to retrieve demultiplexed data from the memory.