System and methods for transmitting data

• US 6,850,559 B1
• Filed: 06/28/2000
• Issued: 02/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Quackenbush, Schuyler Reynier, Snyder, James H, Kretschmer, Mathias R., Driessen, Peter Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): Ghayour, Mohammed
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Dung X.
• Application Number:
  US09/604,690
• Time in Patent Office: 1,679 Days
• Field of Search: 375/219, 375/295, 375/296, 375/267, 375/224, 375/346, 375/316, 375/259, 375/220, 375/317, 375/222, 455/501, 455/513, 455/135, 455/61.11, 455/500, 455/73, 714/746, 714/751, 714/752
• US Class Current: 375/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/10 Adding special bits or symbols to the coded information, e.g. parity check, casting out 9's or 11's
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/356 Unequal error protection [UEP]
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/6508 Flexibility, adaptability, parametrability and configurability of the implementation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0017 where the mode-switching is based on Quality of Service requirement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0041 Arrangements at the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0045 Arrangements at the receiver end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/18 Automatic repetition systems, e.g. Van Duuren systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1829 Arrangements specially adapted for the receiver end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0098 Unequal error protection

Abstract

A system and method for transmitting data over a channel, in which the data are categorized in at least two different categories. For example, the data are categorized according to the effect on perceived degradation on the data when error mitigation is performed on the data. Corrupted data of the first category are replaced using a first replacement method, such as retransmission and forward error correction. The corrupted data of the second category are replaced using a second replacement method different from the first replacement method, e.g., error mitigation or interpolation.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting data over a channel, comprising:

receiving data from a data source;

generating categorization data that categorizes the data into one of a first category and a second category based on a determination of the degradation associated with reconstructing the data, the categorization assisting a receiver to reconstruct the data;

transmitting at least a portion of the data and at least a portion of the, categorization data over the channel, wherein if the data is categorized into the firs category then error correction data is transmitted along with the data and the categorization data over the channel;

receiving the data and categorization data;

receiving the data and categorization data;

determining whether the received data contains errors,

if the data contains and is categorized in the first category then correcting the errors in the data by performing forward error correction based on the error correction data transmitted with the data; and

if the data contains errors after performing the forward error correction, then further correcting the errors by performing error mitigation.

2. A method for transmitting data over a channel, comprising:

receiving data from a data source,

generating categorization data that categorizes the data into one of a first category and a second category based on a determination of the degradation associated with reconstructing the data, the categorization assisting a receiver to reconstruct the data;

transmitting at least a portion of the data and at leas a portion of the categorization data over the channel, wherein if the data is categorized into the first category then error correction data is transmitted along with the data and the categorization data over the channel;

receiving the data and categorization data;

determining whether the received data contains errors;

if the data contains errors and is categorized in the first category then correcting the errors in the data by performing forward error correction based on the error correction data transmitted with the data; and

if the data contains errors and is categorized in the second category, then correcting the errors in the data by performing error mitigation.

3. A method for transmitting data over a channel, comprising:

receiving data from a data source;

generating categorization data that categorizes the data into one of a first category and a second category based on a determination of the degradation associated with reconstructing the data, the categorization assisting a receiver to reconstruct the data;

transmitting at least a portion of the data and at least a portion of the categorization data over the channel;

receiving the data and categorization data;

determining whether the received data contains errors;

if the data contains errors and is categorized in the first category, then requesting a retransmission of the data from the transmitter wherein a determination of whether to request a retransmission of data is based on available channel capacity; and

if available channel bandwidth is above a threshold, then permitting a large portion of the requests for retransmission to be transmitted.

4. A method for transmitting data over a channel, comprising:

receiving data from a data source;

generating categorization data that categorizes the data into one of a first category and a second category based on a determination of the degradation associated with reconstructing the data, the categorization assisting a receiver to reconstruct the data;

transmitting at least a portion of the data and at least a portion of the categorization data over the channel;

receiving the data and categorization data;

determining whether the received data contains errors;

if the data contains errors and is categorized in the first category, then requesting a retransmission of the data from the transmitter wherein a determination of whether to request a retransmission of data is based on available channel capacity; and

if the available bandwidth is below a threshold, then permitting only a selective portion of the request for retransmission to be transmitted, the selective portion being based on the determination of the degradation associated with reconstructing the data.