Method and system of transporting multimedia signals

• US 7,907,634 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2005
• Issued: 03/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ngna LLC
• Original Assignee: Ngna LLC
• Inventors: Hildebrand, John G., Gonzalez, Francisco
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore, Jr.; Michael J
• Application Number:
  US10/597,573
• Publication Number:
  US 20080256584A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,234 Days
• Field of Search: 370/392, 370/394, 370/345, 370/486, 370/478, 370/210, 370/537, 370/465, 370/208, 370/535, 370/389, 725/109, 725/100, 725/91, 725/32, 725/131, 725/39, 725/114, 386/95, 386/125, 386/124, 386/46
• US Class Current: 370/487
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2801 Broadband local area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23608 Remultiplexing multiplex streams, e.g. involving modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2381 Adapting the multiplex stream to a specific network, e.g. an Internet Protocol [IP] network transmission of MPEG streams over ATM H04L12/5601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42676 for modulating an analogue carrier signal to encode digital information or demodulating it to decode digital information, e.g. ADSL or cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/437 Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. for transmitting client requests to a VOD server flow control in data networks H04L47/10; streaming protocols, e.g. RTP or RTCP, H04L65/65; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests in data packet switching networks H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6168 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6437 Real-time Transport Protocol [RTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

A method and system of transporting multimedia signals from a source 12 to customer equipment (CE) 14. The method and system being applicable to cable, telecommunications, and other systems where signals are transported from a source 12 to CE 14.

Claims

1. A transport system, the system comprising:

an RF combiner configured to combine three video protocol streams carrying differently-encoded versions of the same audiovisual content to a consumer equipment, wherein a first one of the video transport protocol streams contains the audiovisual content directly encoded according to a video transport protocol; and

a bi-directional data communication unit (BDCU) configured to provide second and third ones of the video protocol streams to the RF combiner, wherein the second one of the video protocol streams contains packets having payloads that contain a combination of the audiovisual content and other Internet Protocol data, and the third one of the video protocol streams contains packets having payloads that contain only the audiovisual content.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a source of the audiovisual content, wherein the source includes at least one multiplexer configured to combine a plurality of the packetized television signals into a multiple program transport stream (MPTS), and to transport the MPTS to the BDCU.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising a video server configured to packetize streaming video and wherein the multiplexer of the BDCU is configured to integrate the packetized streaming video with packetized television signals and data signals for transport to consumer equipment (CE) in an integrated transport stream.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the network communicator is configured to encapsulate the packetized streaming video for network communication and transport it to the BDCU.

5. A method of providing multimedia content from a source to consumer equipment (CE) comprising:

encapsulating a first copy of audiovisual (AV) data as payload in packets according to a video transport protocol to form a first video transport stream;

encapsulating Internet Protocol (IP) data as payload in packets according to a modem protocol, combining the modem protocol packets with a second copy of the AV data, and encapsulating the combination as payload in packets according to the video transport protocol to form a second video transport stream;

encapsulating a third copy of the AV data as payload in packets according to the modem protocol, and encapsulating the modem protocol packets as payload in packets according to the video transport protocol to form a third video transport stream; and

transmitting a combination of the three video transport streams from a common transmitter and onto a common medium.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising configuring the IP data according to a real-time transport protocols (RTP) prior to encapsulation according to the modem protocol.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising configuring the RTP-configured IP data according to user datagram protocols (UDP) or transmission control protocols (TCP) prior to encapsulation according to the modem protocol.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the video transport protocol is an MPEG-2 protocols.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the modem protocol is a data over cable service interface specifications (DOCSIS) transport protocol.