Media clock recovery

• US 8,428,045 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2010
• Issued: 04/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Gelter, Aaron, Parker, Brian, Boatright, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Ricky
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gidado, Rasheed
• Application Number:
  US12/874,836
• Publication Number:
  US 20110228888A1
• Time in Patent Office: 964 Days
• Field of Search: 370/503, 370/350, 370/516, 370/498, 370/389, 370/507, 370/510, 370/512, 375/371, 375/376
• US Class Current: 370/350
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23406 involving management of server-side video buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23608 Remultiplexing multiplex streams, e.g. involving modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2389 Multiplex stream processing, e.g. multiplex stream encrypting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42692 for reading from or writing on a volatile storage medium, e.g. Random Access Memory [RAM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4305 Synchronising client clock from received content stream, e.g. locking decoder clock with encoder clock, extraction of the PCR packets arrangements for synchronising receiver with transmitter by comparing receiver clock with transmitter clock H04L7/0012; arrangements for synchronising receiver with transmitter wherein the receiver takes measures against momentary loss of synchronisation H04L7/0083
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4385 Multiplex stream processing, e.g. multiplex stream decrypting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4435 Memory management allocation of memory to service a request G06F9/5016; addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures G06F12/02

Abstract

A system recovers a local media clock from a master media clock based on time-stamped packets received from a transmitter. The packets may include audio, video, or a combination of both, sampled at a rate determined by the master media clock at the transmitter. Timestamps in the packets may be based on values of a remote real-time counter at the transmitter that is synchronized with a local real-time counter at a receiver. The local media clock may be syntonized with the master media clock through the clock periods. The clocks may be synchronized by syntonizing the clocks and adjusting the phase of the local media clocks based on timestamps and a real-time counter.

Claims

1. A system for recovering a local media clock from a master media clock based on a plurality of time-stamped packets received from a transmitter, the system comprising:

a frequency synthesizer configured to generate the local media clock;

a local real-time counter synchronized with a remote real-time counter associated with the transmitter;

a period determination module configured to determine a period of the local media clock from a change in the local real-time counter over at least one cycle of the local media clock, and to determine a period of the master media clock from a difference between a first timestamp and a second timestamp, a first one of the time-stamped packets including the first timestamp and a second one of the time-stamped packets including the second timestamp;

a syntonization adjustment module configured to cause the frequency synthesizer to adjust a frequency of the local media clock to match a frequency of the master media clock based on a difference between the period of the local media clock and the period of the master media clock; and

a synchronization adjustment module configured to determine a phase difference between the master media clock and the local media clock,

where the synchronization adjustment module is further configured to cause the frequency synthesizer to limit the phase difference between the master media clock and the local media clock in response to a determination that the local media clock is syntonized with the master media clock.

2. The system of claim 1 where the synchronization adjustment module is configured to cause the frequency synthesizer to adjust the phase of the local media clock to match the phase of the master media clock based on a difference between the second timestamp and a value read from the local real-time counter when the synchronization adjustment module reads the second timestamp included in the second one of the time-stamped packets.

3. The system of claim 1, where each of the first one and the second one of the timestamps is determined at the transmitter from a value of the remote real-time counter sampled on an edge of the master media clock.

4. The system of claim 1, where the local real-time counter is synchronized with the remote real-time counter through a clock synchronization protocol.

5. The system of claim 1, where the period determination module includes a finite impulse response filter to process timestamp differences in the time-stamped packets.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising a syntonization calculation module configured to determine the difference between the period of the local media clock with a proportional integral derivative controller.

7. The system of claim 6, where the syntonization calculation module includes an averager component configured to average an output of the proportional integral derivative controller.

8. An apparatus for recovering a local media clock from a master media clock based on a plurality of time-stamped packets received at the apparatus from a transmitter, the apparatus comprising:

a frequency synthesizer that generates the local media clock;

a local real-time counter synchronized with a remote real-time counter at the transmitter;

a period determination module configured to determine a period of the local media clock from a change in the local real-time counter over at least one cycle of the local media clock, and to determine a period of the master media clock from a difference between at least a first timestamp and a second timestamp in the time-stamped packets, where each of the first and second timestamps is based on a value of the remote real-time counter sampled according to the master media clock at the transmitter;

a syntonization adjustment module configured to cause the frequency synthesizer to adjust the period of the local media clock to match the period of the master media clock; and

a synchronization adjustment module configured to determine a phase difference between the master media clock and the local media clock,

where the synchronization adjustment module is further configured to cause the frequency synthesizer to limit the phase difference between the master media clock and the local media clock in response to a determination that the local media clock is syntonized with the master media clock.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, where the synchronization adjustment module is configured to direct the frequency synthesizer to adjust the phase of the local media clock to match the phase of the master media clock based on a difference between a third timestamp in a third one of the time-stamped packets and a value read from the local real-time counter.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, where the synchronization adjustment module determines whether the local media clock is in a locked state from a comparison of a lock threshold with a phase difference between the local media clock and the master media clock.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, where the synchronization adjustment module decreases a phase adjust value in response to being in the locked state and increases the phase adjust value in response to not being in the locked state.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 comprising a first media clock recovery component and a second media clock recovery component, where the first media clock recovery component comprises the frequency synthesizer, the local real-time counter, and the period determination module, and where the second media clock recovery component comprises a second frequency synthesizer, a second local real-time counter, and a second period determination module for recovery of a second local media clock from a second master media clock.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, where the syntonization adjustment module reads the difference between the period of the first local media clock and the period of the first master media clock from the first media clock recovery component, where the syntonization adjustment module reads the difference between a period of the second local media clock and a period of the second master media clock from the second media clock recovery component, and where the syntonization adjustment module causes the first frequency synthesizer and the second frequency synthesizer to adjust the period of the first master media clock and the second master media clock, respectively.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, where the first local media clock recovery is for media streams in a first time domain and the second local media clock recovery is for media streams in a second time domain.

15. A method that generates a local media clock at a receiver from a plurality of time-stamped packets received from a transmitter, the method comprising:

providing a first real-time counter at the receiver, where the first real-time counter is synchronized with a second real-time counter at the transmitter;

generating the local media clock with a frequency synthesizer;

reading a plurality of first timestamps from the first real-time counter at a first rate determined by the local media clock;

determining a period of the local media clock at the receiver based on a change in the first timestamps;

determining a period of the master media clock in the transmitter based on a change in a plurality of second timestamps included in the time-stamped packets, the second timestamps being generated from a second real-time counter at the transmitter sampled at a second rate determined by the master media clock;

adjusting a frequency of the local media clock with the frequency synthesizer to limit a difference between the period of the local media clock and the period of the master media clock;

determining a phase difference between the master media clock and the local media clock by comparing at least one timestamp in the time-stamped packets with at least one timestamp read from the first real-time counter; and

adjusting a phase of the local media clock with the frequency synthesizer to limit the phase difference between the master media clock and the local media clock in response to determining the local media clock is syntonized with the master media clock.

16. The method of claim 15 where determining the period of the master media clock comprises dividing the change in the second timestamps included in the time-stamped packets by a number of data blocks in each of the time-stamped packets.

17. The method of claim 15 where determining the period of the master media clock further comprises filtering a plurality of changes in the second timestamps with a finite impulse response filter.

18. The method of claim 15 further comprising determining the difference between the period of the master media clock and the period of the local media clock by repeatedly determining the difference between the period of the master media clock and the period of the local media clock and aggregating the differences with a proportional integral derivative controller.