Correcting for data losses with feedback and response

• US 8,209,574 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2008
• Issued: 06/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Pendakur, Ramesh, Hallford, Jason C.
• Primary Examiner(s): BAKER, STEPHEN M
• Application Number:
  US12/072,323
• Publication Number:
  US 20080148123A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,583 Days
• Field of Search: 714/748
• US Class Current: 714/748
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/11 Arrangements for counter-measures when a portion of broadcast information is unavailable
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/16 in which the return channel carries supervisory signals, e.g. repetition request signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1809 Selective-repeat protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0093 Point-to-multipoint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A digital content transmission and reception system that uses feedback and re-transmission of missing content is described. A content transmission system broadcasts a complete set of digital content to a plurality of content reception systems via a communication link. A content reception system receives a corresponding incomplete set of digital content, determines particular content portions that are missing, and provided feedback indicating the missing content portions to the content distribution system. The content distribution system the re-transmits content based on the feedback.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting a plurality of content portions representing a complete set of digital television data to each of a plurality of reception systems;

transmitting a manifest to each of the plurality of reception systems, wherein the manifest indicates the plurality of content portions representing the complete set of the digital television data;

receiving feedback from a reception system of the plurality of reception systems, the feedback indicating a content portion of the plurality of content portions that was not received by the reception system;

determining content portions to retransmit with an algorithm based on whether a predetermined run-length of sequential content portions are indicated to be missing in the received feedback; and

retransmitting the content portion based on the received feedback indicating the content portion.

2. A method comprising:

transmitting a plurality of content portions representing a complete set of digital television data to each of a plurality of reception systems;

transmitting a manifest to each of the plurality of reception systems, wherein the manifest indicates the plurality of content portions representing the complete set of the digital television data;

receiving feedback from a reception system of the plurality of reception systems, the feedback indicating a content portion of the plurality of content portions that was not received by the reception system;

determining content portions to retransmit with an algorithm based on how frequently a content portion is reported to be missing from a plurality of reception systems; and

retransmitting the content portion based on the received feedback indicating the content portion.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said transmitting the manifest comprises transmitting a manifest that includes an identifier for each of the plurality of content portions representing the complete set of the digital television data.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said transmitting the content portions comprises transmitting content portions that each have an identifier corresponding to an identifier in the manifest.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said transmitting the complete set of digital television data comprises performing one of broadcasting and narrowcasting.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the content portions to retransmit comprises determining the content portions to retransmit based on a type of the digital television data.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

scheduling a timeslot for retransmitting the content portion; and

broadcasting the timeslot.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein retransmitting the content portion is performed at a regularly scheduled timeslot.

9. A method comprising:

transmitting a plurality of content portions representing a complete set of digital television data to each of a plurality of reception systems;

transmitting a manifest to each of the plurality of reception systems, wherein the manifest indicates the plurality of content portions representing the complete set of the digital television data;

receiving feedback from a reception system of the plurality of reception systems, the feedback indicating a content portion of the plurality of content portions that was not received by the reception system;

determining content portions to retransmit with an algorithm based on how strongly quality is affected by content portions that are missing; and

retransmitting the content portion based on the received feedback indicating the content portion.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the content portions to retransmit comprises determining the content portions to retransmit based in part on achieving compliance with a guaranteed level of quality.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the content portions to retransmit comprises determining the content portions to retransmit based in part on a user preference.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the content portions to retransmit comprises determining the content portions to retransmit based in part on a type of the digital television data.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein retransmitting the content portion comprises retransmitting the content portion over a different communication link than the plurality of content portions representing the complete set are transmitted over.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein retransmitting the content portion comprises retransmitting the content portion over a channel with a lower bandwidth than a channel over which the plurality of content portions representing the complete set are transmitted over.

15. A content transmission system comprising:

a transmitter to transmit a plurality of content portions representing a complete set of digital television data to each of a plurality of reception systems, and to transmit a manifest to each of the plurality of reception systems, the manifest to indicate the plurality of content portions that represent the complete set of the digital television data; and

a re-transmission system coupled with the transmitter, the re-transmission system to receive feedback from each of the plurality of reception systems, each feedback to indicate one or more content portions, of the plurality of content portions representing the complete set, that were not received by a corresponding reception system, the re-transmission system to determine content portions to re-transmit to the plurality of reception systems by using an algorithm based on how frequently content portions are reported to be missing from the plurality of reception systems in the feedback from the reception systems, the re-transmission system to re-transmit the determined content portions to the plurality of reception systems.

16. The content transmission system of claim 15, wherein the manifest is to include an identifier for each of the plurality of content portions representing the complete set of the digital television data, and wherein the content portions representing the complete set are to each have an identifier corresponding to an identifier in the manifest.

17. The content transmission system of claim 15, wherein the re-transmission system is to determining the content portions to retransmit also based on a type of the digital television data.

18. A content transmission system comprising:

a transmitter to transmit a plurality of content portions representing a complete set of digital television data to each of a plurality of reception systems, and to transmit a manifest to each of the plurality of reception systems, the manifest to indicate the plurality of content portions that represent the complete set of the digital television data; and

a re-transmission system coupled with the transmitter, the re-transmission system to receive feedback from each of the plurality of reception systems, each feedback to indicate one or more content portions, of the plurality of content portions representing the complete set, that were not received by a corresponding reception system, the re-transmission system to determine content portions to re-transmit to a given reception system by using an algorithm based on how strongly quality is affected by content portions that are missing from the given reception system as indicated in the feedback from the given reception system, and the re-transmission system to re-transmit the determined content portions to the given reception system.

19. The content transmission system of claim 18, wherein the re-transmission system is to determine the content portions to retransmit based in part on achieving compliance with a guaranteed level of quality.

20. The content transmission system of claim 18, wherein the re-transmission system is to determine the content portions to retransmit based in part on a user preference.

21. The content transmission system of claim 18, wherein the re-transmission system is to determine the content portions to retransmit based in part on a type of the digital television data.

22. The content transmission system of claim 18, wherein the determined content portions are to be retransmitted over a different communication link than the plurality of content portions representing the complete set are to be transmitted over.

23. The content transmission system of claim 18, wherein the determined content portions are to be retransmitted over a channel having a lower bandwidth than a channel over which the plurality of content portions representing the complete set are to be transmitted over.