Multi-stream pro-active rate adaptation for robust video transmission

• US 7,652,993 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2006
• Issued: 01/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: van Beek, Petrus J. L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh; Ayaz R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vu; Hoang-Chuong Q
• Application Number:
  US11/592,906
• Publication Number:
  US 20080107173A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,180 Days
• Field of Search: 375/240.02, 375/240.26, 370/230, 370/230.1, 370231-235, 370/468, 370/395.64, 370/395.65, 370/252, 725/95
• US Class Current: 370/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/127 Prioritisation of hardware or computational resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/147 according to rate distortion criteria rate-distortion as a criterion for motion estimation H04N19/567
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/152 by measuring the fullness of the transmission buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/164 Feedback from the receiver or from the transmission channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23406 involving management of server-side video buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2365 Multiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2401 Monitoring of the client buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4347 Demultiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer

Abstract

A method for transmitting data streams from a transmitter to a plurality of receivers over a shared channel that includes a transmitter simultaneously transmitting a plurality of the data streams to the plurality of receivers of the shared channel. The method includes jointly adapting bit rates of the respective data streams being transmitted in accordance with the available bandwidth, a general target time, and a quality measure.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting data streams from a transmitter to a plurality of receivers over a shared channel comprising:

(a) a transmitter simultaneously transmitting a plurality of said data streams to said plurality of receivers over said shared channel subject to a joint delay constraint characterized by the equation

$\underset{j=i}{\overset{i+j-1}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br><br><br>r_{n,i}=f_n·<br><br>H_n·<br><br>{\mathrm{\Delta <br><br>s}}_n-B_n<br><br><br><br>n=1,2,\mathrm{\dots <br><br>}<br><br>,<br><br>N.$

where r_n,j corresponds to the amount of bit used to encode frame j of stream n,

f_n denotes the channel utilization factor,

H_n denotes the expected bandwidth available for stream n,

Δ

S_n denotes the time available until the target delivery time for stream n,

B_n denotes the backlog for stream n,

and L denotes the number of video frames in the segment of video data

(b) jointly and independently adapting the bit rates of the respective said data stream being transmitted in accordance with;

(i) available bandwidths between the transmitter and respective said receivers;

(ii) a general target time by which the data for respective said data streams should arrive at the respective said receivers;

(iii) characteristics of respective said data streams relating respective bit rates to a quality measure by selectively varying at least one of;

the respective channel utilization factors f_n of the plurality of said data streams; and

the respective target delivery times Δ

s_n for the plurality of said data streams, by adjusting respective delay target factors Ω

_n for the plurality of said data streams.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said channel has a varying bandwidth.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein each of said data streams have a different bit rate.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein each of said data streams includes a video stream.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said characteristics are based upon a 1 parameter rate distortion model.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said joint adapting is based upon maximizing the minimum video quality across all video streams.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein said characteristics are based upon a 3 parameter rate distortion model.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said joint adapting is based upon minimizing the average distortion over all video streams.

9. The method of claim 4 wherein said bit rates are adapted based upon optimizing a measure of the overall combined quality of said video streams.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said adapting is based upon a delay-constrained rate adaptation.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said adapting takes into account data stored in a buffer or queue at said transmitter.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said adapting takes into account data stored in a buffer or queue at said receiver.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said transmitter multiplexes said data streams into said shared channel.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said adapting takes into account data stored in a buffer or queue for each data stream at the transmitter.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein said adapting includes a model substantially ensuring on-time delivery while substantially avoiding buffer underflow at said receivers.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein said adapting relates an error distortion of one of said data streams to the data rate of said one of said data streams.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein said adapting selectively uses a multi-stream packet scheduler.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein said packet scheduler is invoked when a threshold on the overall channel utilization may be exceeded.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein said adapting selectively removes packets being held in a transmission buffer.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein said available bandwidth between said transmitter and said plurality of receivers are different.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein a different general target time is associated with each said respective data stream.