Wireless broadcasting system

• US 8,064,444 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2007
• Issued: 11/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Monument Bank of Intellectual Property, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Wi-LAN Inc.
• Inventors: Madan, Seema, Govind, Keerthi S., Petry, Brian D., Marsh, Gene W., Burchill, William S., Gummadi, Srikanth, Connors, Dennis P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Phillips; Hassan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tsegaye; Saba
• Application Number:
  US11/623,032
• Publication Number:
  US 20080170530A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,775 Days
• Field of Search: 370/310, 370/310.2, 370312-313, 370328-330, 370336-337, 370343-344, 370/350, 370/390, 370/391, 455/3.01, 725/62
• US Class Current: 370/390
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/67 Common-wave systems, i.e. using separate transmitters operating on substantially the same frequency
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2602 Signal structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/023 Multiplexing of multicarrier modulation signals multicarrier modulation H04L27/2601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2362 Generation or processing of Service Information [SI]
• 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 21/2383 Channel coding or modulation of digital bit-stream, e.g. QPSK modulation arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by adapting the channel coding H04L1/0009; analogue front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/242 Synchronization processes, e.g. processing of PCR [Program Clock References] arrangements for synchronising broadcast or distribution via plural systems in broadcast distribution systems H04H20/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26208 the scheduling operation being performed under constraints
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64315 DVB-H
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services

Abstract

A wireless broadcast system that collects content for distribution over a wireless communication network. At least one content stream is received and encapsulated into a stream of transport packets that are ruggedized for broadcast over the wireless communication link. The stream of transport packets are simultaneously broadcast as part of an identical signal from a plurality of synchronized transmitters in a single frequency network. The content can include multimedia data, such as audio/video data, movies, game, audio broadcasts, television network programs, or other types of multimedia content.

Claims

1. A method of broadcasting data over a single frequency wireless network (SFN) that includes at least two base stations configured to broadcast a same signal simultaneously with a same modulation scheme and a same coding rate, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of finely interleaved content streams;

coarsely interleaving packets from the plurality of finely interleaved content streams into an aggregate content stream;

associating a connection identifier (CID) with the aggregate content stream;

encapsulating the aggregate content stream into a transport stream for transmission over an air interface; and

synchronously distributing the transport stream to the at least two base stations.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

formatting the transport stream as a digital video broadcast for handheld (DVB-H) signal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the transport stream comprises motion picture expert group (MPEG) transport packets.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the transport stream is transmitted as an Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation (OFDM) signal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of finely interleaved content streams comprise multimedia data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of finely interleaved content streams comprise television network program data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the transport stream further includes at least one transport packet containing at least a portion of an electronic program guide.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the encapsulating comprises adding forward error correction (FEC) information to the transport stream.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the coarsely interleaving results in seconds worth of a particular content stream.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the transport stream includes information identifying the occurrence of a later interleaving instance of a same independent content stream in the aggregate content stream.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the later interleaving instance is a next instance of the same independent content stream.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of finely interleaved content streams comprise an Internet Protocol (IP)-encoded content stream.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising synchronizing the at least two base stations based on a reference time signal.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the encapsulating the aggregate content stream further is based upon a size dimension of a maximum transmission unit.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the size dimension of the maximum transmission unit is predetermined.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the at least two base stations broadcasts the same signal over an air interface via at least one antenna.

17. The method as in claim 1, wherein the encapsulating the aggregate content stream into transport stream comprises:

adding error correction information and header information to each packet in the aggregate content stream to obtain a MAC protocol data unit (PDU); and

fragmenting the MAC PDU into transport stream packets of a specified length.

18. The method as in claim 17, wherein the coarsely interleaving comprises using an interleaving array indexed by source-destination address information provided in the packets of the plurality of finely interleaved content streams.

19. An access service network system comprising:

a network interface configured to receive a plurality of finely interleaved content streams;

an encapsulator configured to receive the plurality of finely interleaved content streams, coarsely interleave the plurality of finely interleaved content streams into an aggregate content stream of packets, associate a connection identifier (CID) with the aggregate content stream of packets, and encapsulate the packets of the aggregate content stream into a transport stream of transport stream packets for transmission over an air interface, wherein the transport stream packets include information identifying an occurrence of a later interleaving instance of a same independent content stream in the aggregate content stream;

a single frequency network adapter configured to synchronously distribute the transport stream packets; and

a plurality of base stations, each of the plurality of base stations configured to build a broadcast frame that includes an OFDM preamble and discrete sections of the transport stream packets, and to broadcast identical signals in synchronization with the plurality of base stations.