System for measuring transmission bandwidth for media streaming and method for same

• US 8,625,443 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2009
• Issued: 01/07/2014
• 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): Jiang, Charles C
• Application Number:
  US12/922,379
• Publication Number:
  US 20110007660A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,667 Days
• Field of Search: 370229-241, 370252-253
• 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 system for measuring a transmission bandwidth for media streaming and a method thereof that are capable of calculating the transmission bandwidth by using a transmission packet to be transmitted to a receiver without transmitting a proving packet to the receiver and streaming media data to a receiver by using the transmission bandwidth in a service for streaming the media data such as a moving picture in real time.

Claims

1. A system for measuring a transmission bandwidth, comprising:

a server configured to transmit transmission data to a receiver in a packet pair and receives a time stamp of a received time when the transmission data is received from the receiver, to calculate the transmission bandwidth on the basis of the time stamp of the received time, and to stream media to the receiver by using the transmission bandwidth; and

a receiver configured to receive the transmission data, to record the time stamp of the received time for each packet of the received transmission data, to transmit the time stamp of the received time, which is recorded at a predetermined cycle and thereafter, and to receive media from the server through streaming,

wherein the transmission data is free of transmission time information.

2. The system for measuring a transmission bandwidth according to claim 1, wherein the server is configured to store a packet size and a time stamp of a transmitted time of the transmission data corresponding to each packet.

3. The system for measuring a transmission bandwidth according to claim 1, wherein the server is configured to calculate the transmission bandwidth by dividing the sizes Li of two continuously sent i-th packets by a reception interval tr_i+1−

tr_i between two packets received in the receiver.

4. The system for measuring a transmission bandwidth according to claim 3, wherein the server is configured to acquire a final transmission bandwidth by taking a median for a set of transmission bandwidth values measured between the packet pairs in each cycle.

5. A server, comprising:

a communicator configured to communicate with a receiver;

a data transmitter configured to transmit transmission data to the receiver in a packet pair;

a bandwidth calculator configured to calculate the transmission bandwidth on the basis of a time stamp of a received time received from the receiver; and

a controller configured to control to transmit the transmission data through the data transmitter in a packet pair, calculates the transmission bandwidth through the bandwidth calculator on the basis of the time stamp of the received time received from the receiver, and streams media to the receiver by using the calculated transmission bandwidth,

wherein the transmission data is free of transmission time information.

6. The server according to claim 5, further comprising a storage configured to store a packet size and a time stamp of a transmitted time of the transmission data corresponding to each packet.

7. The server according to claim 5, wherein the bandwidth calculator is configured to calculate the transmission bandwidth by dividing the sizes Li of two continuously sent i-th packets by a reception interval tr_i+1−

tr_i between two packets received in the receiver.

8. The server according to claim 7, wherein the bandwidth calculator is configured to acquire a final transmission bandwidth by taking a median for a set of transmission bandwidth values measured between packet pairs in each cycle.

9. A receiver, comprising:

a communicator for communicating with a server;

a received time storage configured to record and store a time stamp of a received time for each packet of transmission data received from the server; and

a controller configured to control to transmit the time stamp of the received time for each packet of the transmission data to the server at a predetermined cycle,

wherein each packet of transmission data is free of transmission time information.

10. The receiver according to claim 9, wherein the controller is configured to transmit the time stamp of the received time to the server at the predetermined cycle and thereafter, to receive media transmitted from the server by using the transmission bandwidth acquired based on the time stamp of the received time through streaming.

11. A method for measuring a transmission bandwidth of a system including a server and a receiver, comprising:

(a) transmitting transmission data from the server to the receiver in a packet pair;

(b) receiving the transmission data at the receiver, wherein the transmission data is free of transmission time information;

(c) transmitting a time stamp of a received time of the transmission data from the receiver to the server;

(d) receiving the time stamp of the received time at the server;

(e) calculating the transmission bandwidth on the basis of the time stamp of the received time by the server; and

(f) streaming media from the server to the receiver by using the transmission bandwidth.

12. The method for measuring a transmission bandwidth according to claim 11, wherein at step (c), the receiver records the time stamp of the received time for each packet of the transmission data and transmits the time stamp of the received time recorded at a predetermined cycle to the server.

13. The method for measuring a transmission bandwidth according to claim 11, wherein at step (e), the server calculates the transmission bandwidth by dividing the sizes Li of two continuously sent i-th packets by a reception interval tr_i+1−

tr_i between two packets received in the receiver.

14. The method for measuring a transmission bandwidth according to claim 13, wherein at step (e), a final transmission bandwidth is acquired by taking a median for a set of transmission bandwidth values measured between the packet pairs in each cycle.

15. A method for measuring a transmission bandwidth of a server streaming media to a receiver by using the transmission bandwidth, comprising:

(a) transmitting transmission data to the receiver in a packet pair;

(b) receiving a time stamp of a received time of the transmission data from the receiver; and

(c) calculating the transmission bandwidth on the basis of the time stamp of the received time,

wherein the transmission data is free of transmission time information.

16. The method for measuring a transmission bandwidth according to claim 15, wherein at step (b), the time stamp of the received time of the transmission data is received from the receiver at a predetermined cycle.

17. The method for measuring a transmission bandwidth according to claim 15, wherein at step (c), the transmission bandwidth is calculated by dividing the sizes Li of two continuously sent i-th packets by a reception interval tr_i+1−

tr_i between two packets received in the receiver.

18. The method for measuring a transmission bandwidth according to claim 17, wherein at step (c), a final transmission bandwidth is acquired by taking a median for a set of transmission bandwidth values measured between the packet pairs in each cycle.

19. The method for measuring a transmission bandwidth according to claim 15, further comprising:

(d) streaming media to the receiver by using the calculated transmission bandwidth.