Sender-side bandwidth estimation for video transmission with receiver packet buffer

• US 7,784,076 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2005
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2004
• 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., Demircin, Mehmet U.
• Primary Examiner(s): Koenig; Andrew Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Malangone; Carmine
• Application Number:
  US11/113,001
• Publication Number:
  US 20060095944A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,951 Days
• Field of Search: 725/143
• US Class Current: 725/81
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/149 by estimating the code amount by means of a model, e.g. mathematical model or statistical model
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/152 by measuring the fullness of the transmission buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/162 User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/164 Feedback from the receiver or from the transmission channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/166 concerning the amount of transmission errors, e.g. bit error rate [BER]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/177 the unit being a group of pictures [GOP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/188 the unit being a video data packet, e.g. a network abstraction layer [NAL] unit
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/30 using hierarchical techniques, e.g. scalability H04N19/63 takes precedence
• 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 19/46 Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/89 involving methods or arrangements for detection of transmission errors at the decoder

Abstract

A method of adaptively encoding video in response to an estimation of bandwidth over a transmission channel, where bandwidth estimation uses feedback packets from a receiver acknowledging receipt of video packets transmitted during an interval when the transmitted packets are not stored in a buffer of a lower network layer.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting video across an 802.11e wireless network interconnection from a source to a destination comprising:

(a) encoding said video at a network application layer at said source;

(b) providing sequential portions of said encoded video each comprising multiple data packets to a lower network layer than said application layer at said source, said lower network layer having at least one buffer capable of storing, and delaying transmission of, selective ones of said sequential portions of said encoded video, said network application layer storing a first value, and associating said first value with respective ones of said sequential portions, only when said respective ones of said sequential portions of said encoded video will be stored in no buffer of said lower network layer prior to transmission;

(c) said lower network layer capable of providing a plurality of said multiple data packets to said destination in an order different than the order that said multiple data packets are provided from said application layer to said lower network layer;

(d) receiving a feedback packet at said source from said destination, said feedback packet comprising a sequence number of the last received packet and a time stamp indicating a receipt time at which said last received packet was received;

(e) adapting said encoding of said video based upon an estimate of the bandwidth of said network interconnection, said estimate based upon said receiving said feedback packet at said source, and based on a calculation of an interval duration beginning from a start time that a said respective one of said sequential portions of said encoded video, associated with said first value, was provided to said lower network layer and ending at said receipt time for said last received packet of said respective one of said sequential portions, and where said calculation excludes any interval duration beginning from a start time that a portion of said encoded video, that is not associated with a said first value, was provided to said lower network layer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein, at the lower network layer, multiple data packets are sent by the source prior to receiving a feedback packet.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said multiple data packets are received by said receiver in an out of order manner.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said feedback packet is representative of said multiple data packets.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said feedback packet is a block-acknowledgment frame.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said block-acknowledgment frame is preceded by a block-acknowledgment-request frame.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the rate of arrival of said multiple data packets at said destination is different from the rate at which packets can be transmitted across said network interconnection.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said network interconnection uses UDP.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said bandwidth is based upon selection of one of a previous instance that said multiple data packets were provided to said lower network layer at said source.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said bandwidth is further based upon the number of lost packets.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said bandwidth is based upon the absence of receiving a feedback packet during a time period.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said bandwidth is based upon a comparison related to a MAC block size.