System and method for demultiplexing different stream types in a programmable transport demultiplexer

• US 8,125,987 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Issued: 02/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rodgers, Stephane W., Nguyen, Ut, Mamidwar, Rajesh S
• Primary Examiner(s): Harper, Kevin C
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, THINH D
• Application Number:
  US11/393,121
• Publication Number:
  US 20070237143A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,161 Days
• Field of Search: 370/487, 370/389, 386/95, 386/98, 386/112
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23608 Remultiplexing multiplex streams, e.g. involving modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4341 Demultiplexing of audio and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4344 Remultiplexing of multiplex streams, e.g. by modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers

Abstract

In one embodiment, there is presented a method for processing data. The method comprises receiving a plurality of packets, wherein each packet comprises a payload, and wherein the plurality of packets carry video data encoded in accordance with an encoding standard from a plurality of encoding standards; identifying encoding standards encoding the video data carried in the payloads of the plurality of packets; and inserting identifiers that identify the encoding standard encoding the video data carried in the payloads of the plurality of packets into the plurality of packets.

Claims

1. A method for processing data, said method comprising:

receiving a plurality of transport packets at a decoder, wherein each packet is encoded in accordance with one or more encoding standards from a plurality of encoding standards;

identifying the one or more encoding standards encoding the plurality of transport packets at a register connected to the decoder; and

inserting one or more identifiers that identify the one or more encoding standards encoding the plurality of transport packets at the register connected to decoder, wherein inserting one or more identifiers comprises adding another header or headers onto the plurality of transport packets, said another header or headers including the one or more identifiers identifying the one or more encoding standards of the data carried in the payloads of the packet.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of packets comprise a header, and wherein identifying the one or more encoding standards further comprises:

examining a field in the headers of the plurality of packets.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inserting another one or more identifiers into the plurality of packets, wherein the another one or more identifiers identify the length of the plurality of packets.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein inserting another one or more identifiers further comprises:

inserting another one or more headers onto the plurality of packets, said one or more headers including the another one or more identifiers identifying the length of the plurality of packets.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

processing the plurality of packets based on a plurality of rules, wherein for each one of the packets, the packet is processed according to one of the plurality of rules, and wherein the particular one of the plurality of rules is selected based on the identifier identifying the encoding standard for the packet.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

storing state machine states for the plurality of encoding standards based on processing the plurality of packets.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein processing the packets further comprises:

retrieving and loading the state machine states for the encoding standards for the plurality of packets.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of encoding standards comprise MPEG transport, DirecTV transport, DVD input, Packetized Elementary Stream input, Elementary stream input, and DirecTV transport with MPEG-1.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting the identifier further comprises maintaining other pre-existing headers of the packet.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting one or more identifiers identifies the one or more encoding standards encoding the plurality of transport packets when the transport packet was received.

11. A system for processing data, said system comprising:

a decoder system, said decoder system comprising;

an input for receiving a plurality of packets, wherein the plurality of packets are encoded with one or more encoding standards from a plurality of encoding standards;

a register for identifying the one or more encoding standards encoding the plurality of packets and for inserting one or more identifiers that identify the one or more encoding standards encoding the plurality of packets into the plurality of packets; and

a transport demultiplexer for receiving the plurality of packets with the one or more identifiers.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of packets comprise a header, and wherein identifying one or more encoding standards further comprises:

examining a field in the headers of the plurality of packets.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein inserting one or more identifiers further comprises:

inserting another one or more headers onto the plurality of packets, said another one or more headers including the identifiers identifying the one or more encoding standards of the data carried in the payloads of the packet.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the register inserts another one or more identifiers into the plurality of packets, wherein the another one or more identifiers identify the length of the plurality of packets.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein inserting another one or more identifiers further comprises:

inserting another one or more headers onto the plurality of packets, said another one or more headers including the another one or more identifiers identifying the length of the plurality of packets.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the transport demultiplexer processes the plurality of packets based on a plurality of rules, wherein for each one of the packets, the packet is processed according to one of the plurality of rules, and wherein the particular one of the plurality of rules is selected based on the identifier identifying the encoding standard for the packet.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the decoder system comprises:

memory for storing state machine states for the plurality of encoding standards based on processing the plurality of packets that are maintained by the transport demultiplexer.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein processing the packets further comprises:

retrieving and loading the state machine states for the encoding standards for the plurality of packets.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of encoding standards comprise MPEG transport, DirecTV transport, DVD input, Packetized Elementary Stream input, Elementary stream input, and DirecTV transport with MPEG-1.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein inserting the identifier further comprises maintaining other pre-existing headers of the packet.

21. The system of claim 11, wherein inserting one or more identifiers identifies the one or more encoding standards encoding the plurality of packets when the packet was received at the input.

22. A system for processing data, said system comprising:

a decoder system, said decoder system comprising;

an input for receiving a plurality of transport packets, wherein the plurality of packets are encoded with one or more encoding standards from a plurality of encoding standards;

a register for identifying the one or more encoding standards encoding the plurality of transport packets and for inserting another one or more headers onto the plurality of transport packets, said another one or more headers including the identifiers identifying the one or more encoding standards of the data carried in the payloads of the packet; and

a transport demultiplexer for receiving the plurality of transport packets with the one or more headers including the one or more identifiers.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein inserting the identifier further comprises maintaining other pre-existing headers of the packet.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein inserting one or more identifiers identifies the one or more encoding standards encoding the plurality of transport packets when the transport packet was received at the input.