Time based multimedia objects streaming apparatus and method

• US 6,917,984 B1
• Filed: 11/13/2000
• Issued: 07/12/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Tan, Pek Yew
• Primary Examiner(s): Geckil, Mehmet B.
• Application Number:
  US09/709,726
• Time in Patent Office: 1,702 Days
• Field of Search: 709/238, 709/224, 370/401
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2416 Real-time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/286 Time to live
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/31 by tagging of packets, e.g. using discard eligibility [DE] bits
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/32 by discarding or delaying data units, e.g. packets or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/43 Assembling or disassembling of packets, e.g. segmentation and reassembly [SAR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1026 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1036 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements

Abstract

A method of and an apparatus for sending a data object through a communications network from a sender to a recipient via at least one network node, the method including the steps of: (a) dividing the data object into a stream of data packets to be transmitted, (b) marking each data packet with a delivery time; and (c) discarding a said data packet on route when the delivery time of the said packet cannot be met.

Claims

1. A system for controlling data traffic generated by at least one multimedia object stream source, the system comprising:

an ingress gateway that controls transmission of data packets of a multimedia object stream into a network;

an egress gateway that controls the receipt of data packets of a multimedia object stream from the network; and

a content traffic exchange hop connected to a routing node of a network, the routing node comprising one of a legacy switching component and a routing network component, said content traffic exchange hop monitoring the load of the routing node, and said content traffic exchange hop scheduling transmission of data packets of a multimedia object from the routing node, based upon the monitoring and based upon timing requirements for the data packets, to facilitate delivery of real-time object streams across the network to end-users.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, the ingress gateway comprising:

an object fragmentor that fragments and packetizes an object into data packets of a suitable payload size for a network delivery medium;

a timer that determines the decoding time needed for an end device to decode the object;

an object marker that links payloads of an object;

a time slot divider that computes the transmission time of the object; and

a time slot allocator that determines the time of delivery for the object.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, the content traffic exchange hop and egress gateway comprising at least one of:

a network parameter mapper and decoder module that decodes headers of packetized multimedia objects, each header including a precedence level, a time stamp of the multimedia object and a source and destination reference;

a network payload packetizer and depacketizer that packetizes data packets of an object transmitted to a network layer and that depacketizes data packets of an object received from a network layer;

an object stream scheduler that registers a decoding time for each object received by the node and that schedules a delivery time of each object to be routed from the node;

a data packet transmission scheduler that schedules the transmission of a multimedia object when transmission time allows the multimedia object to be transmitted completely;

a time slot re-scheduler that re-allocates the time scheduled for sending an object when the object fails to meet real time requirements;

a time slot divider that synchronizes object streams for at least one of re-transmission and re-routing; and

a time slot allocator that allocates a delivery time for objects transmitted from the node.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a clock that synchronizes received object streams and schedules transmission times for object streams to be transmitted.

5. The system as claimed in claim 4, the clock comprising:

an object arrival determiner that determines an arrival of the first data packet belonging to an object based on a multimedia object reference;

a tracker that computes and maintains a time table of streams based on a difference between a transmission of the last object sent and the next scheduled object transmission;

a list creator that creates a list linking data packets of an object that are received; and

a queue assigner that assigns time slots for data packets.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a delayer that uses cache memory to delay transmission of data objects, to meet real-time decoding requirements at an end receiver, to avoid network congestion and to limit short-term bandwidth utilization peaks.

7. The system as claimed in claim 6, further comprising a synchronizer that synchronizes object streams.

8. The system as claimed in any one of claims 1, further comprising a moderator that moderates peak data by diverting object data of lower precedence to a cache memory.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a bandwidth allocator that divides decoding frames of a real-time delivery window into multiple time slots, to allocate bandwidth and conform to a traffic filter specification.

10. A system for controlling data traffic generated by at least one multimedia object stream source, the system comprising:

a content traffic exchange hop connected to a routing node of a network, the routing node comprising one of a legacy switching component and a routing network component, said content traffic exchange hop monitoring the load of the routing node, and said content traffic exchange hop scheduling transmission of data packets of a multimedia object from the routing node, based upon the monitoring and based upon timing requirements for the data packets, to facilitate delivery of real-time object streams across the network to end-users.