System for measuring the transmission bandwidth for multimedia streaming and method for same

• US 8,582,453 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2009
• Issued: 11/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SK Planet Co., Ltd. (SK Telecom Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: SK Planet Co., Ltd. (SK Telecom Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Bae, Tae Meon
• Primary Examiner(s): Hamza, Faruk
• Assistant Examiner(s): LO, DIANE LEE
• Application Number:
  US12/737,918
• Publication Number:
  US 20110149763A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,611 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0002 by adapting the transmission rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0018 based on latency requirement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

A method and system for measuring a transmission bandwidth which includes: a server for transmitting packets of multimedia data to a receiving apparatus, receiving a time stamp from the receiving apparatus, calculating a transmission bandwidth in real time from the received time stamp, and streaming the multimedia data to the receiving apparatus in accordance with the calculated transmission bandwidth; with the receiving apparatus receiving packets of the multimedia data from the server, recording received time stamp for each of received packets, and transmitting the received time stamp to the server by a predetermined cycle. According to the present invention, transmission bandwidth is measured using data actually transmitted and that streaming of media is suited to a transmission bandwidth to meet QoS (Quality of Service) requirements.

Claims

1. A system for streaming packets of multimedia data between a server and reception apparatus comprising:

a communication network for providing a transmission access path through which the server can stream multimedia data to the reception apparatus and a transmission access path through which the reception apparatus can access the server,

where said server transmits the packets of multimedia data to the reception apparatus and said reception apparatus records a time stamp of the received time for each packet of multimedia data from the server and transmits the recorded time stamp to the server,

a control unit for controlling the time stamps of the received packets of multimedia data so that the recorded time stamps are transmitted from the receiving apparatus to the server in a predetermined cycle,

a bandwidth calculation unit responsive to said control unit for calculating a transmission bandwidth from transmitted packets of multimedia data by dividing the packet size of one transmitted packet by a time interval based on the recordal of time stamps of successive packets and calculating a final transmission bandwidth based upon determining a median from a selected number of transmission bandwidths within said predetermined cycle, with the multimedia data to be streamed to the reception apparatus based on the final calculated transmission bandwidth.

2. The system as defined in claim 1, further comprising a storage unit for storing a size of each of the packets of the multimedia data and the time stamp of each of the packets so that the size and the time stamp corresponding to the packet.

3. The system as defined in claim 2, wherein the bandwidth calculation unit calculates the transmission bandwidth by dividing a size L_i of a packet transmitted to the reception apparatus at an i^th position, from among the packets, by a time interval tr_i+1-tr_i between a time when the reception apparatus receives the i^th packet and a time when the reception apparatus receives a specific packet following the i^th packet.

4. A method for streaming packets of multimedia data between a server and reception apparatus based on a calculated transmission bandwidth comprising the steps of:

(a) transmitting packets of multimedia data from the server to the reception apparatus;

(b) using the reception apparatus for recording a time stamp for each packet of multimedia data received from the server and for transmitting the recorded time stamp for each of the received packet to the server

(c) controlling the transmittal of the recorded time stamps from the reception apparatus to the server so that the recorded time stamps are transmitted to the server in a predetermined cycle;

(d) calculating a transmission bandwidth directly from the transmitted packets of multimedia data based on the recorded time stamp of the reception apparatus of successive packets by dividing the packet size of one transmitted packet by a time interval between the recordal of time stamps for successive packets;

(e) calculating a final transmission bandwidth in real time based upon determining a median from a selected number of transmission bandwidths within said predetermined cycle; and

(f) streaming the multimedia data to the reception apparatus based on the final calculated transmission bandwidth.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the step (c) comprises calculating the transmission bandwidth by dividing a size L_i of a packet transmitted to the reception apparatus at an i^th position, from among the packets, by a time interval tr_i+1-tr_i between a time when the reception apparatus receives the i^th packet and a time when the reception apparatus receives a specific packet following the i^th packet.