Set-up of media stream transmission and server and client for media stream transmission

• US 8,578,033 B2
• Filed: 09/07/2010
• Issued: 11/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 6, LLC
• Original Assignee: NXP B.V. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Inventors: Mallart, Raoul
• Primary Examiner(s): Ashraf, Waseem
• Application Number:
  US12/876,270
• Publication Number:
  US 20110066737A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,155 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/228
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2567 for reachability, e.g. inquiring the address of a correspondent behind a NAT server
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields

Abstract

A media stream is transmitted from a server device to a client device. The client device (10) transmits set-up request messages (43a), discovery messages (44b) and a play command message (45a). The server receives versions of the set-up request messages (43b), the discovery message (44b) and the play message (45b) with matching identifier in the payloads of the messages. The server device (12) receives the discovery messages (44b) on a predetermined port and stores information recording that the discovery messages (44b) have been received, at least when no corresponding set-up request message 43b has been received before. The server device (12) compares the identifiers from the received set up request message (43b) and the discovery message (44b) according to the information recording reception, at least when the discovery message (44b) has been received before the set-up request message (43b). The server device (12) selects transport parameters for transmission of the media stream responsive to detection that the first and second identifier have matching values, the selected transport parameters being based on data from said set-up request message (43b) and a port identification from a source field of the discovery message (44b). The media stream is transmitted in accordance with the selected transport parameters to the client device (10) addressed to the port determined from the source field of the discovery message (44b).

Claims

1. A method of transmitting a media stream from a server device to a client device the method comprising:

receiving a discovery message on a predetermined port of the server device, the discovery message having a payload data field that contains a first identifier;

storing information recording that the discovery message has been received;

receiving a set-up request message having a payload data field that contains a second identifier;

comparing the first identifier and the second identifier of the received set up request message and the discovery message according to the information recording reception, at least when the discovery message has been received before the set-up request message;

selecting transport parameters for transmission of the media stream responsive to detection that the first identifier and the second identifier have matching values, the selected transport parameters being based on data from said set-up request message and a port identification from a source field of the discovery message; and

transmitting the media stream in accordance with the selected transport parameters to the client device addressed to the port determined from the source field of the discovery message.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of set-up request messages for the media stream, said set-up request messages being one of said plurality of set-up request messages;

receiving a plurality of discovery messages from a plurality of mutually different predetermined ports, said discovery message being one of said plurality of discovery messages;

storing information for each of the plurality of discovery messages, recording that the discovery message has been received;

extracting information from respective ones of the received set-up request messages that indicates ports on which a corresponding discovery message must be received;

comparing the first and the second identifiers of the set-up request messages and at least the discovery messages of which reception has been recorded, at least for those of the discovery messages that have been received before the set-up request messages;

selecting pairs, each pair comprising a respective one of the received set-up request messages and a respective one of the discovery messages that has been received from the port that is indicated by the respective one of the received set-up request messages, upon detection that the respective one of the received set-up request messages and the respective one of the received discovery messages have matching first and second identifiers; and

transmitting the media stream only after pairs have been detected for each of the received set-up messages for the media stream.

3. The method according to claim 2, the method further comprising:

receiving a play message for the stream from the client device at the server device; and

starting transmission of the media stream in response to the play message and

detection of said pairs for each of the received set-up request messages for the stream identified in the play message.

4. The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising:

receiving a play message from the client device at the server device; and

starting transmission of the media stream in response to the play message and

detection that the set-up request message and the discovery message with matching first and second identifiers have been received.

5. The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising:

using the second identifier from the set-up request message as a session identifier for the transmission of the media stream.

6. A network server device for transmitting a media stream from the network server device to a client device, the device comprising:

a first message handler for receiving a discovery message on a predetermined first port of the server device, the discovery message having a payload data field that contains a first identifier;

a second message handler for receiving a set-up request message having a payload data field that contains a second identifier from a second port of the server device;

a media streamer configured to transmit a media stream in accordance with selected transport parameters from a further port of the server device to a selected destination port of the client device;

a memory;

a controller coupled to the first and second message handlers, the media streamer and the memory, and configured to store information in the memory recording that the discovery message has been received;

to compare the first and second identifiers of the received set up request message and the discovery message according to the information recording reception, at least when the discovery message has been received before the set-up request message and to respond to detection that the first and second identifiers have matching values by controlling selection of the transport parameters and the destination port, based on the set-up request message and a source port identification from a source field of the discovery message.

7. The network server device according to claim 6, wherein the controller is configured to pass the set-up request to the media streamer responsive to detection of a match between the first and second identifiers, at least when the discovery message has been received before the set-up request message.

8. The network server device according to claim 6, further comprising:

a plurality of first message handlers for receiving a discovery message on respective, mutually different predetermined ports of the server device, the plurality of first message handlers comprising said first message handler;

the controller being coupled to each of the plurality of first message handlers, the controller being configured to store information recording reception of each of a plurality of discovery messages from the first message handlers;

to receive a plurality of set-up request messages from the second message handler;

to extract information from respective ones of the received set-up request messages that indicates ports on which a corresponding discovery message must be received;

to compare the first and second identifiers of the set-up request messages and at least the discovery messages of which reception has been recorded, at least for those of the discovery messages that have been received before the set-up request messages;

to select pairs, each pair comprising a respective one of the received set-up request messages and a respective one of the discovery messages that has been received from the port that is indicated by the respective one of the received set-up request messages upon detection that the respective one of the received set-up request messages and the respective one of the received discovery messages have matching first and second identifiers; and

to enable transmission of the media stream only after pairs have been detected for each of the received set-up request messages for the media stream.

9. The network server device according to claim 8, wherein the controller is configured to receive a play message from the second message handler and to respond to the play message by causing the media streamer to start transmitting the media stream in response to the play message and detection of said pairs for each of the received set-up request messages for the stream identified in the play message.

10. The network server device according to claim 6, wherein the controller is configured to receive a play message from the second message handler and to cause the media streamer to start transmission of the media stream in response to the play message and detection that the set-up request message and the discovery message with matching first and second identifiers have been received.

11. The network server device according to claim 6, wherein the controller is configured to cause the media streamer to use the second identifier from the set-up request message as a session identifier for the transmission of the media stream.

12. The network server device according to claim 6, wherein the controller is configured to use UDP packets as discovery messages.

13. A computer program product comprising a program of instructions that, when executed by a programmable processor of a server device, will cause the programmable processor to:

store information recording that a discovery message has been received by a first message handler of a predetermined first network port in a memory;

receive a set-up request message from a second message handler of a second network port;

compare a first identifier and a second identifier from payload fields of the set up request message and the discovery message according to the information recording reception, at least when the discovery message has been received before the set-up request message; and

respond to detection that the first and second identifiers have matching values by controlling selection of transport parameters and a destination port of a media streamer, based on the set-up request message and a source port identification from a source field of the discovery message.