Reliable audio-video transmission system using multi-media diversity

• US 8,184,657 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2004
• Issued: 05/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Dacosta, Behram Mario
• Primary Examiner(s): Appiah, Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sabouri, Mazda
• Application Number:
  US10/949,535
• Publication Number:
  US 20060062242A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,798 Days
• Field of Search: 370/230, 370/464
• US Class Current: 370/464
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1867 Arrangements specially adapted for the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/22 using redundant apparatus to increase reliability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/3065 for real time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/122 by diverting traffic away from congested entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/25 with rate being modified by the source upon detecting a change of network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

A system and method for switching data packet traffic distribution across diverse transmission medium according to detected quality of service characteristics for a given data packet rate from server to client. It should be recognized that diverse medium are not interdependent with regard to fading or signal strength considerations. One mode of switching comprises switching all the data packets from transmission on a first medium to transmission over a second diverse medium. In a second mode of switching the distribution is changed according to a media-time coding mechanism in which typically data is being transmitted simultaneously across more than one of the multiple diverse medium. The data packet transmissions preferably comprise audio-video data packet streams, such as MPEG-2 streams. By way of example, the diverse transmission medium may comprise a wireless connection (i.e. WiFi) used in combination with a power-line network connection, such as within a home network.

Claims

1. An apparatus for providing increased transmission quality of service, comprising:

a server configured with multiple transmitters collocated with said server, for transmitting packet data over multiple diverse transmission media along an entire path from the server to multiple receivers at a client;

wherein said multiple transmitters are simultaneously and directly coupled to said multiple receivers through said multiple diverse transmission media;

wherein said diverse media are subject to different forms of interference;

means of detecting quality of service of said transmission; and

means for transmitting packet data across said diverse transmission media and performing switching of said packet data with simultaneous transmissions across said multiple diverse media in response to changes in the detected quality of service;

wherein said multiple diverse transmission media include both a wireless connection and a power-line connection;

said server including programming executable on the server for;

(a) selecting a default transmission medium, transmitting a packet or packet string over said default transmission medium, detecting error rate associated with transmitting the packet or packet string, continuing transmission if the error rate is within limits, optionally adjusting transmission rate if the error rate exceeds a first threshold, and changing the default transmission medium and continuing transmission if the error rate exceeds a second threshold or cannot be corrected by the change in transmission rate;

or

(b) transmitting a packet or packet string over multiple diverse transmission media, continuing transmission if errors do not exceed an error rate, altering distribution or media-time coding of packets between the diverse transmission media if errors exceed the error rate, and changing transmission rates to reduce error rates if sufficient errors arise after altering distribution or media-time coding of packets between the diverse transmission media.

2. An apparatus as recited in claim 1:

wherein said switching of packet data transmission comprises changing the media-time coding performed when transmitting the packet data simultaneously over different media in the diverse media; and

wherein said media-time coding comprises partial switching in which simultaneous transmissions occur across more than one of the diverse media simultaneously with packet data encoded across multiple different media.

3. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the diversity of transmission media provides compensation by a second or subsequent medium coupled between the server and client for any temporary fading or outage experienced in a first medium over which data is transmitted to said client.

4. An apparatus for providing increased data packet transmission quality of service, comprising:

a server having multiple transmitters collocated with said server, for transmitting over diverse media comprising multiple diverse forms of transmission media configured for communicating packet data along an entire path from the server to multiple receivers at a client;

wherein said multiple transmitters are simultaneously and directly coupled to said multiple receivers through said multiple diverse transmission media;

wherein said diverse media are subject to different forms of interference;

a computer processor configured for controlling data packet transmissions over said diverse forms of media; and

programming configured for execution by said computer processor for,

detecting changes in the quality of service (QoS),

switching packet data transmission with simultaneous transmissions across said diverse media in response to said changes in quality of service;

wherein said multiple diverse transmission media include both a wireless connection and a power-line connection;

said server including programming executable on the server,for;

(a) selecting a default transmission medium, transmitting a packet or packet string over said default transmission medium, detecting error rate, associated with transmitting the packet or packet string, continuing transmission if the error rate is within limits. optionally adiustinq transmission rate if the error rate exceeds a first threshold, and changing the default transmission medium and continuing transmission if the error rate exceeds a second threshold or cannot be corrected by the change in transmission rate;

or

(b) transmitting a packet or packet string over multiple diverse transmission media, continuing transmission if errors do not exceed an error rate altering distribution or media-time coding of packets between the diverse transmission media if errors exceed the error rate, and changing transmission rates to reduce error rates if sufficient errors arise after altering distribution or media-time coding of packets between the diverse transmission media.

5. An apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein the diversity of transmission media provides compensation by a second or subsequent medium coupled between the server and client for any temporary fading or outage experienced in a first medium over which data is transmitted to said client.

6. An apparatus as recited in claim 4, further comprising automatically increasing the transmission rate of packet data to utilize higher available bandwidths, or decreasing the packet data transmission rate to reduce error rates in response to lower available data bandwidth within said diverse media.

7. An apparatus as recited in claim 4:

wherein said switching of packet data transmission comprises changing the media-time coding performed when transmitted the packet data simultaneously over different media within the diverse media; and

wherein said media-time coding comprises partial switching in which simultaneous transmissions occur across more than one of the diverse media simultaneously with packet data encoded across multiple different media.

8. An apparatus as recited in claim 7, wherein said media-time coding comprises encoding data packets utilizing media-time trellis coding, block coding, or interleaving.

9. An apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein said packet data comprises forms of streaming data including video, audio, MPEG-2 data stream, or a combination.

10. An apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein each said diverse transmission media are supported by transmission schemes according to different communication protocols.

11. An apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein utilizing said diverse forms of transmission media increases transmission diversity with a resultant increase in the available minimum quality of service (QoS) for said server.

12. An apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein quality of service (QoS) can be registered in response to packet error rate (PER), bit error rate (BER), jitter, latency, or bandwidth availability.

13. An apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein said diverse forms of transmission media comprise media in which fading or signal strength vary independently when comparing at least two of the diverse transmission media.

14. An apparatus as recited in claim 13, wherein said diverse forms of transmission media comprise wireless media, at least two of which provide different propagation characteristics.

15. An apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein said server comprises a network server.

16. An apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein said network server is configured for communicating within a home based network.

17. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein said home based network is configured for communicating audio-video packet data between audio-video capture devices, audio-video player devices and audio-video output devices.

18. An apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein said programming configured for switching packet data transmission over diverse forms of transmission media is responsive to detected quality of service as registered by the receipt of acknowledgements (ACKs) received by said server from said client, or error rates, for a given packet stream bandwidth.

19. A method of increasing quality of service for packet based transmissions, comprising:

configuring a client and server for communication of data packets over diverse media comprising diverse forms of transmission media;

wherein said diverse media are subject to different forms of interference;

wherein the server is configured with multiple transmitters collocated with said server, with each transmitter adapted for supporting transmission over one of said diverse media, which is configured for supporting different communication protocols, along an entire path from multiple transmitters to multiple receivers;

wherein said multiple transmitters are simultaneously and directly coupled to said multiple receivers;

wherein the client is configured with multiple receivers, each receiver adapted for reception over one of said diverse media;

detecting the quality of service of said communication of data packets for a given data packet rate between the client and server;

switching distribution of simultaneous data packet transmissions as media-time coding with encoding across diverse media in response to detected quality of service for the given data packet rate between the client and server;

wherein said multiple diverse transmission media include both a wireless connection and a power-line connection; and

selecting a default transmission medium, transmitting a packet or packet string over said default transmission medium, detecting error rate associated with transmitting the packet or packet string, continuing transmission if the error rate is within limits, optionally adjusting transmission rate if the error rate exceeds a first threshold, and changing the default transmission medium and continuing transmission if the error rate exceeds a second threshold or cannot be corrected by the change in transmission rate;

or

transmitting a packet or packet string over multiple diverse transmission media, continuing transmission if errors do not exceed an error rate, altering distribution or media-time coding of packets between the diverse transmission media if errors exceed the error rate, and changing transmission rates to reduce error rates if sufficient errors arise after altering distribution or media-time coding of packets between the diverse transmission media.

20. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein said switching of the distribution of said data packet transmissions comprises switching the media-time coding of data transmission across the diverse media.

21. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein said media-time coding comprises encoding data packets utilizing media-time trellis coding, block coding, or interleaving.

22. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein the transmission of data packets across said diverse transmission media provides compensation by a second or subsequent medium for any temporary fading or outage experienced in a first medium over which data is transmitted to said client.

23. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein said data packet transmissions comprise forms of streaming data including video, audio, or a combination.

24. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein said data packet transmissions comprise MPEG-2 data streams.

25. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein said switching data packet distributions across diverse forms of transmission media increases transmission diversity with a resultant increase in the available minimum quality of service (QoS).