Bandwidth sharing in advanced streaming format
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- assigning a bandwidth in a streamable content; and
transmitting a modulated data signal having data fields encoded thereon transmitted over a communications channel having the assigned bandwidth, said modulated data signal representing the streamable content, said assigned bandwidth specifying a bandwidth based on a first bandwidth for transmitting the entire data fields of the modulated data signal, said data fields comprising data encoded in the data fields in the streamable content representing a combined stream including a first stream having the first bandwidth and including a second stream having a second bandwidth, wherein the first stream represents a first portion of the streamable content and the second stream represents a second portion of the streamable content, wherein the first bandwidth is greater than the second bandwidth, wherein the first stream is transmitted simultaneously with the second stream, wherein, during certain periods of time, the combined stream consists primarily of either the first stream or the second stream but not both so that during the certain periods the combined stream has a bandwidth which is less than or equal to the first bandwidth, and wherein the assigned bandwidth of the communications channel allocated to the combined stream is less than or equal to the first bandwidth.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Modulated data signal having data fields encoded in a data structure defining a bandwidth sharing object for transmission over communications channels. A first data field contains a first stream of first information having a first bandwidth. A second data field contains a second stream of second information having a second bandwidth. The first stream is transmitted simultaneously with the second stream. One or more additional data fields each contain an additional stream of information having an additional bandwidth. The additional streams are transmitted simultaneously with the first and second stream. A bandwidth number indicated in the object is a function of the bandwidth of the first stream, the second stream, and the one or more additional streams. A bandwidth value indicated in the object is less than the total of the first bandwidth, the second bandwidth, and the total bandwidths of the one or more additional streams.
96 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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assigning a bandwidth in a streamable content; and transmitting a modulated data signal having data fields encoded thereon transmitted over a communications channel having the assigned bandwidth, said modulated data signal representing the streamable content, said assigned bandwidth specifying a bandwidth based on a first bandwidth for transmitting the entire data fields of the modulated data signal, said data fields comprising data encoded in the data fields in the streamable content representing a combined stream including a first stream having the first bandwidth and including a second stream having a second bandwidth, wherein the first stream represents a first portion of the streamable content and the second stream represents a second portion of the streamable content, wherein the first bandwidth is greater than the second bandwidth, wherein the first stream is transmitted simultaneously with the second stream, wherein, during certain periods of time, the combined stream consists primarily of either the first stream or the second stream but not both so that during the certain periods the combined stream has a bandwidth which is less than or equal to the first bandwidth, and wherein the assigned bandwidth of the communications channel allocated to the combined stream is less than or equal to the first bandwidth. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method comprising:
- assigning a bandwidth; and
transmitting a modulated data signal having data fields encoded thereon transmitted over a communications channel having the assigned bandwidth, said modulated data signal represents a streamable content, said data fields comprising data encoded in the data fields representing a combined stream including a first stream having a first bandwidth and including a second stream having a second bandwidth, wherein the first stream represents a first portion of the streamable content and the second stream representing a second portion of the streamable content, wherein the first bandwidth is greater than the second bandwidth, wherein the first stream is transmitted simultaneously with the second stream, wherein during certain periods of time, the combined stream consists primarily (1) of a portion of the first stream having a first partial bandwidth which is less than the first bandwidth and the second stream, or (2) of a portion of the second stream having a second partial bandwidth which is less than the second bandwidth and the first stream, so that during the certain periods the combined stream has a bandwidth which is less than or equal to the first partial bandwidth plus the second bandwidth or the second partial bandwidth plus the first bandwidth, respectively, and wherein the assigned bandwidth of the communications channel allocated to the combined stream is less than or equal to the total of the first partial bandwidth and the second partial bandwidth. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
- assigning a bandwidth; and
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17. A method comprising:
- assigning a bandwidth to a content; and
transmitting the content including a modulated data signal having data fields encoded thereon from an author who created the content over a communications channel having the assigned bandwidth, said modulated data signal representing the content, said data fields comprising data encoded in the data fields representing a combined stream including data representing one or more of the following;an audio stream having an audio bandwidth; a video stream having a video bandwidth; a file transfer stream having a file transfer bandwidth; and a text stream having a text bandwidth, wherein the file transfer bandwidth is greater than the text bandwidth, wherein the streams are transmitted simultaneously with each other, wherein, during certain periods of time and during the transmission of the combined stream, the combined stream includes primarily either the file transfer stream or the text stream but not both so that during the certain periods the combined stream has a combined bandwidth which is less than or equal to the audio bandwidth plus the video bandwidth plus the file transfer bandwidth, wherein the assigned bandwidth of the communications channel allocated to the combined stream is less than or equal to the audio bandwidth plus the video bandwidth plus the file transfer bandwidth, said assigned bandwidth being specified by the content author and being a function of a relationship among each of the combined stream.
- assigning a bandwidth to a content; and
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18. A method comprising:
- assigning a bandwidth to a content; and
transmitting the content including a modulated data signal having data fields encoded thereon from an author who created the content over a communications channel having the assigned bandwidth, said modulated data signal representing the content, said data fields comprising data encoded in the data fields representing a combined stream including data representing one or more of the following;an audio stream having an audio bandwidth; a video stream having a video bandwidth; a file transfer stream having a file transfer bandwidth; and a text stream having a text bandwidth, wherein the file transfer bandwidth is greater than the text bandwidth, wherein the streams are transmitted simultaneously with each other, and wherein during certain periods of time and during the transmission of the combined stream, the combined stream includes primarily (1) a portion of the file transfer stream having a file transfer partial bandwidth which is less than the file transfer bandwidth and (2) a portion of the text stream having a text partial bandwidth which is less than the text bandwidth so that during the certain periods the combined stream has a combined bandwidth which is less than or equal to the audio bandwidth plus the video bandwidth plus the partial file transfer bandwidth plus the partial text bandwidth, wherein the assigned bandwidth of the communications channel allocated to the combined stream is based on and is less than or equal to the audio bandwidth plus the video bandwidth plus the partial file transfer bandwidth plus the partial text bandwidth, wherein said assigned bandwidth being specified by a content author and being a function of a relationship among each of the combined stream.
- assigning a bandwidth to a content; and
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19. A method of transmitting an advanced streaming format video stream content from a source to a destination for an author comprising:
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receiving a request from the destination for the advanced streaming format video stream; sending a composite stream from the source to the destination having a plurality of component streams in response to the received request, said composite stream representing the advanced streaming format video stream content said advanced streaming format video stream content being created by the author; and sending an object, specified by the content author before transmission of the content, from the source indicating a bandwidth of the composite stream, wherein said indicated bandwidth is less than a total bandwidth of the plurality of component streams, said indicated bandwidth specifying a bandwidth based on a first bandwidth for sending the composite stream, said composite stream comprising a first stream having the first bandwidth and including a second stream having a second bandwidth, wherein the first stream represents a first portion of the composite stream and the second stream represents a second portion of the composite stream, wherein the first bandwidth is greater than the second bandwidth, wherein the first stream is transmitted simultaneously with the second stream, wherein, during certain periods of time, the composite stream consists primarily of either the first stream or the second stream but not both so that during the certain periods the composite stream has a bandwidth which is less than or equal to the first bandwidth, and wherein the indicated bandwidth allocated to the composite stream is less than or equal to the first bandwidth. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. In a computer system, a method for transmitting content from an author, comprising:
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receiving a data structure that holds multiple streams of data, said data structure within the content created by the author, said streams of data comprising samples that are stored in packets in the data structure and wherein the data structure includes bandwidth-sharing data that was stored prior to a request being transmitted by the computer system that caused the data structure to be received, wherein the bandwidth-sharing data indicates a combined bandwidth of the streams of data, wherein the combined bandwidth is a function of a bandwidth of each of the streams of data, and wherein the combined bandwidth is less than a sum of the bandwidths of the streams of data, said bandwidth-sharing data specifying a bandwidth based on a first bandwidth for sending the multiple streams of data, said multiple streams of data comprising a first stream having the first bandwidth and including a second stream having a second bandwidth, wherein the first stream represents a first portion of the multiple streams of data and the second stream represents a second portion of the multiple streams of data, wherein the first bandwidth is greater than the second bandwidth, wherein the first stream is transmitted simultaneously with the second stream, wherein, during certain periods of time, the multiple streams of data consists primarily of either the first stream or the second stream but not both so that during the certain periods the multiple streams of data have a bandwidth which is less than or equal to the first bandwidth, and wherein the combined bandwidth allocated to the streams of data is further less than or equal to the first bandwidth; and extracting the bandwidth-sharing data, specified by the content author before transmission of the content to adjust network resource requirements according to the combined bandwidth. - View Dependent Claims (25)
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26. A data processing system for transmitting content from an author having:
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a source computer with a storage; a data structure stored in the storage for encapsulating multiple data streams into an aggregated data stream defined by the data structure, data from the data streams being incorporated in packets prior to a request being received by the source computer to transmit the aggregated data stream to a destination computer, said aggregated being within the content; and bandwidth-sharing data within the content, specified by the content author before transmission of the content, encapsulated in a header associated with the packets, wherein the bandwidth-sharing data indicates a combined bandwidth of the aggregated data stream, wherein the combined bandwidth is a function of a bandwidth of each of the data streams, and wherein the combined bandwidth is less than a sum of the bandwidths of the data streams, said bandwidth-sharing data specifying a bandwidth based on a first bandwidth for sending the aggregated data stream, said aggregated data stream comprising a first stream having the first bandwidth and including a second stream having a second bandwidth, wherein the first stream represents a first portion of the aggregated data stream and the second stream represents a second portion of the aggregated data stream, wherein the first bandwidth is greater than the second bandwidth, wherein the first stream is transmitted simultaneously with the second stream, wherein, during certain periods of time, the aggregated data stream consists primarily of either the first stream or the second stream but not both so that during the certain periods the aggregated data stream has a bandwidth which is less than or equal to the first bandwidth, and wherein the combined bandwidth allocated to the aggregated data stream is less than or equal to the first bandwidth. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28)
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29. In a computer system operable for connecting to a communications channel, a method of encapsulating multiple streams of data into an aggregated data stream to be transmitted on the communications channel, said method transmits content from an author, comprising:
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determining a packet size for the communications channel; storing, on a storage device, at least one packet containing information about the aggregated data stream to form a header section in a data structure that defines the aggregated data stream, said data structure being part of the content created by the author; storing, on the storage device, packets containing samples of data from the multiple data streams to form a data section in the data structure; designating a portion of at least one packet in the data section for holding bandwidth-sharing data, said bandwidth data being specified by the content author before transmission of the content said bandwidth-sharing data specifying a bandwidth based on a first bandwidth for sending the aggregated data stream, said aggregated data stream comprising a first stream having the first bandwidth and including a second stream having a second bandwidth, wherein the first stream represents a first portion of the aggregated data stream and the second stream represents a second portion of the aggregated data stream, wherein the first bandwidth is greater than the second bandwidth, wherein the first stream is transmitted simultaneously with the second stream, wherein, during certain periods of time, the aggregated data stream consists primarily of either the first stream or the second stream but not both so that during the certain periods the aggregated data stream has a bandwidth which is less than or equal to the first bandwidth, and wherein the combined bandwidth allocated to the aggregated data stream is less than or equal to the first bandwidth; and storing, on the storage device, the bandwidth-sharing data in a header associated with the packets, wherein the bandwidth-sharing data indicates a combined bandwidth of the aggregated data stream, wherein the combined bandwidth is a function of a bandwidth of each of the streams of data, and wherein the combined bandwidth is less than a sum of the bandwidths of the streams of data, and further wherein the aggregated data stream is stored on the storage device prior to receiving a request for transmission of the aggregated data stream on the communications channel from a destination computer. - View Dependent Claims (30)
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Specification