Multidescriptive coding technique for multistream communication of signals

• US 6,961,432 B1
• Filed: 12/03/1999
• Issued: 11/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Agere Systems Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sinha, Deepen, Sundberg, Carl-Erik Wilhelm
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Huyen
• Assistant Examiner(s): GRAHAM, ANDREW R
• Application Number:
  US09/454,027
• Time in Patent Office: 2,160 Days
• Field of Search: 381/1, 381/2, 381/16, 381/20, 381/80, 381/77, 455/62, 455/427, 455/59, 455/500, 375/240, 375/260, 375/240.12, 375/240.06, 375/231, 375/295, 375/242, 375/243, 375/244, 375/246, 375/247, 375/296, 704/219, 704/229, 704/500, 704/501, 370/297, 370/333, 370/464, 370/465, 341/143, 714/746, 714/820
• US Class Current: 381/2
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/22 Arrangements for broadcast of identical information via plural broadcast systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/74 of satellite networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/88 Stereophonic broadcast systems multiplex system in general H04J
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0065 Serial concatenated codes

Abstract

In a digital audio broadcast system, to utilize transmission bandwidth efficiently, representations of a stereo audio signal for transmission are generated in accordance with an inventive multidescriptive coding technique. The representations, as generated, are then transmitted through multiple communication channels, respectively. The transmitted representations are received by a receiver where one or more of the representations are selected for recovery of the stereo audio signal. Because of the design of the multidescriptive coding used, the more representations are selected to recover the stereo audio signal, the higher the quality of the recovered signal.

Claims

1. Apparatus for communicating a signal over a plurality of communication channels, the signal including at least a first component and a second component, the apparatus comprising:

a processor for generating at least a first representation and a second representation of the signal, the first representation containing first information concerning at least the first component, and second information concerning at least one coefficient for predicting the second component based on the first information, the second representation containing third information concerning at least the second component, and fourth information concerning at least one coefficient for predicting the first component based on the third information; and

an output device for transmitting the first representation and the second representation through the communication channels.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the signal includes a stereo audio signal.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the first component includes a left channel signal of the stereo audio signal, and the second component includes a right channel signal thereof.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first information concerns a combination of the first component and the second component.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the combination of the first component and the second component is adaptively determined.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the third information concerns a combination of the first component and the second component.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the combination of the first component and the second component is adaptively determined.

8. Apparatus for recovering a signal including at least a first component and a second component, the apparatus comprising:

a receiver for receiving at least a first representation and a second representation of the signal, the first representation containing first information concerning at least the first component, and second information concerning at least one coefficient for predicting the second component based on the first information, the second representation containing third information concerning at least the second component, and fourth information concerning at least one coefficient for predicting the first component based on the third information; and

a processor for selecting use of at least one of the first representation and the second representation to recover the signal.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the at least one of the first representation and the second representation is selected based on a measure of corruption of the selected representation.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the first representation and the second representation are encoded in accordance with a forward error correction coding technique.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the measure is a function of a count of detections of errors in the selected representation, in accordance with the forward error correction coding technique.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the first representation and the second representation are received from a plurality of communication channels, respectively, the measure being a function of a signal-to-interference ratio afforded by the communication channel from which the selected representation is received.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the signal includes a stereo audio signal.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the first component includes a left channel signal of the stereo audio signal, and the second component includes a right channel signal thereof.

15. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the first information concerns a combination of the first component and the second component.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the combination of the first component and the second component is adaptively determined.

17. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the third information concerns a combination of the first component and the second component.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the combination of the first component and the second component is adaptively determined.

19. A system for communicating a signal which includes at least a first component and a second component, the system comprising:

a plurality of communication channels;

a transmitter for transmitting at least a first representation and a second representation of the signal through the communication channels, the first representation containing first information concerning at least the first component, and second information concerning at least one coefficient for predicting the second component based on the first information, the second representation containing third information concerning at least the second component, and fourth information concerning at least one coefficient for predicting the first component based on the third information; and

a receiver for recovering the signal based on at least a selected one of the first representation and the second representation.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the signal includes a stereo audio signal.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the first component includes a left channel signal of the stereo audio signal, and the second component includes a right channel signal thereof.

22. The system of claim 19 wherein the communication channels are simultaneously available for transmitting the first representation and the second representation therethrough, respectively.

23. The system of claim 19 wherein the communication channels include satellite links.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein a third representation of the signal is transmitted through a selected one of the communication channels, the selected channel includes a terrestrial link.

25. A method for communicating a signal over a plurality of communication channels, the signal including at least a first component and a second component, the method comprising:

generating at least a first representation and a second representation of the signal, the first representation containing first information concerning at least the first component, and second information concerning at least one coefficient for predicting the second component based on the first information, the second representation containing third information concerning at least the second component, and fourth information concerning at least one coefficient for predicting the first component based on the third information; and

transmitting the first representation and the second representation through the communication channels.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the signal includes a stereo audio signal.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the first component includes a left channel signal of the stereo audio signal, and the second component includes a right channel signal thereof.

28. The method of claim 25 wherein the first information concerns a combination of the first component and the second component.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the combination of the first component and the second component is adaptively determined.

30. The method of claim 25 wherein the third information concerns a combination of the first component and the second component.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the combination of the first component and the second component is adaptively determined.

32. A method for recovering a signal including at least a first component and a second component, the method comprising:

receiving at least a first representation and a second representation of the signal, the first representation containing first information concerning at least the first component, and second information concerning at least one coefficient for predicting the second component based on the first information, the second representation containing third information concerning at least the second component, and fourth information concerning at least one coefficient for predicting the first component based on the third information; and

selecting use of at least one of the first representation and the second representation to recover the signal.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the at least one of the first representation and the second representation is selected based on a measure of corruption of the selected representation.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein the first representation and the second representation are encoded in accordance with a forward error correction coding technique.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the measure is a function of a count of detections of errors in the selected representation, in accordance with the forward error correction coding technique.

36. The method of claim 33 wherein the first representation and the second representation are received from a plurality of communication channels, respectively, the measure being a function of a signal-to-interference ratio afforded by the communication channel from which the selected representation is received.

37. The method of claim 32 wherein the signal includes a stereo audio signal.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the first component includes a left channel signal of the stereo audio signal, and the second component includes a right channel signal thereof.

39. The method of claim 32 wherein the first information concerns a combination of the first component and the second component.

40. The method of claim 39 wherein the combination of the first component and the second component is adaptively determined.

41. The method of claim 32 wherein the third information concerns a combination of the first component and the second component.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein the combination of the first component and the second component is adaptively determined.

43. A method for communicating a signal over a plurality of communications channels, the signal including at least a first component and a second component, the method comprising:

transmitting at least a first representation and a second representation of the signal through the communication channels, the first representation containing first information concerning at least the first component, and second information concerning at least a first coefficient for predicting the second component based on the first information, the second representation containing third information concerning at least the second component, and fourth information concerning at least a second coefficient for predicting the first component based on the third information; and

recovering the signal based on at least a selected one of the first representation and the second representation.

44. The method of claim 43 wherein the signal includes a stereo audio signal.

45. The method of claim 44 wherein the first component includes a left channel signal of the stereo audio signal, and the second component includes a right channel signal thereof.

46. The method of claim 43 wherein the communication channels are simultaneously available for transmitting the first representation and the second representation therethrough, respectively.