Media flow converter for use in real-time delivery transactions

• US 7,925,769 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2005
• Issued: 04/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gavagni, Brett J., Muschett, Brien H, Nusbickel, Wendi L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ismail; Shawki S
• Assistant Examiner(s): HUQ, FARZANA B
• Application Number:
  US11/286,922
• Publication Number:
  US 20070116039A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,966 Days
• Field of Search: 709/231, 709/250, 709/203, 709/217, 709/218, 709/236, 709/240, 370/231, 370/235, 370/352, 370/395.4, 370/465, 370/466, 370/230.1, 370/295.41
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/756 adapting media to device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests

Abstract

A method (200) and a system (100) for coordinated streaming use a single Real Time Protocol (RTP) producer (130) for handling multiple audio services (110). The method can include the steps of assigning (202) a RTP producer to handle multiple audio objects, and maintaining (204) a service for each object in accordance with a delivery schedule. RTP packets can be sent in accordance with the delivery schedule for complying with real-time requirements of a media rendering client thereby providing continuous real-time service delivery. The method can further include determining a wait time and updating the delivery schedule in view of the wait time. In one arrangement, the RTP producer can sleep for a pre-specified interval, and upon wake, prioritizes service delivery based on an audio object'"'"'s wait time.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system for coordinated media streaming comprising:

a processor;

a media flow converter for use with a server for simultaneously delivering media from multiple audio services to multiple Real Time Protocol (RTP) clients, the media flow converter including;

a plurality of audio objects, each audio object having an audio queue for receiving media from one of the multiple audio services and an audio channel for directing a flow of media received from one of the multiple audio services to one of the multiple RTP clients, wherein each audio object has a non-real time thread for receiving media, building the audio queue, and packetizing received media into RTP packets to be placed on the audio queue; and

a single RTP producer having a single real-time thread and a timer for coordinating a delivery of RTP packets from each of the audio objects to a corresponding RTP client based on a delivery schedule to achieve real-time delivery;

wherein said RTP producer sleeps for a pre-specified interval, and upon wake, prioritizes service delivery based on said audio objects'"'"' wait time.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said delivery schedule complies with real-time requirements of said RTP client for providing continuous real-time delivery of media from said server to said RTP client.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the timer is a native timer that determines a sleep time and a wait time for each audio object.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said RTP producer updates said delivery schedule based on a wait time of each audio object, wherein said wait time is the amount of time an audio object has been waiting to send RTP packets.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said audio services can be one of a text-to-speech service, an audio processing service, and a music processing service.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said audio services are provided by a WebSphere Voice Server running on said server, wherein said server is a WebSphere Application Server, and wherein WebSphere Voice Server is integrated with said WebSphere Application Server for providing a mix of java transaction based processing and soft-real-time processing for interfacing with said media converter using a J2EE framework.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein WebSphere Voice Server provides speech recognition and synthesis support to at least one said media converter hosting a Web-based VoiceXML application, wherein the support is for at least one real-time continuous media stream connecting said WebSphere Application Server with said Web-based VoiceXML application.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein said single real-time thread controls communication between said WebSphere Voice Server and WebSphere Application Server for achieving real-time delivery.

9. A computer-implemented method for coordinated streaming, the method comprising the steps of:

configuring the computer to provide a media flow converter for use with a server for simultaneously delivering media from multiple audio services to multiple Real Time Protocol (RTP) clients, the media flow converter including;

a plurality of audio objects, each audio object having an audio queue for receiving media from one of the multiple audio services and an audio channel for directing a flow of media received from one of the multiple audio services to one of the multiple RTP clients, wherein each audio object has a non-real time thread for receiving media, building the audio queue, and packetizing the received media into RTP packets to be placed on the audio queue; and

a single RTP producer having a single real-time thread and a timer;

receiving media from at least one of the multiple audio services to at least one of the plurality of audio objects;

each audio object packetizing received media into RTP packets and placing the RTP packets on the audio queue of the audio object;

the RTP producer accessing the audio objects based on a delivery schedule; and

the RTP producer coordinating a delivery of RTP packets from each of the audio objects to a corresponding RTP client in accordance with the delivery schedule to achieve real-time delivery;

wherein said RTP producer sleeps for a pre-specified interval, and upon wake, prioritizes service delivery based on said wait time.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said delivery schedule complies with real-time requirements of each RTP client thereby providing continuous real-time service delivery.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining at least one wait time that an audio object has been waiting to send RTP packets; and

updating said delivery schedule in view of said wait time.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the timer is a native timer which determines a sleep time and wait time for an audio object.