System and method for demultiplexing different stream types in a programmable transport demultiplexer

• US 8,913,609 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2012
• Issued: 12/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rodgers, Stephane W., Nguyen, Ut, Mamidwar, Rajesh S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hamza, Faruk
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, THINH D
• Application Number:
  US13/405,844
• Publication Number:
  US 20120155488A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,023 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23608 Remultiplexing multiplex streams, e.g. involving modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• 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

Abstract

In one embodiment, there is presented a method for processing data. The method comprises receiving a plurality of packets, wherein each packet comprises a payload, and wherein the plurality of packets carry video data encoded in accordance with an encoding standard from a plurality of encoding standards; identifying encoding standards encoding the video data carried in the payloads of the plurality of packets; and inserting identifiers that identify the encoding standard encoding the video data carried in the payloads of the plurality of packets into the plurality of packets.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a multiplexed transport stream comprising a plurality of transport packets, wherein each of the plurality of transport packets in the multiplexed transport stream comprises a payload carrying encoded video or audio data, wherein the encoded video or audio data of each of the plurality of transport packets is encoded in accordance with an encoding standard from a plurality of encoding standards and is packetized before being included within the payload of the transport packet; and

wherein at least some of the plurality of transport packets do not include a field within a header of the transport packet identifying the encoding standard associated with the payload of the transport packet;

for each of the plurality of transport packets in the multiplexed transport stream;

identifying the encoding standard associated with the encoded video or audio data being carried within the payload of the transport packet; and

inserting into the header of the transport packet an identifier corresponding to the encoding standard associated with the encoded video or audio data being carried within the payload of the transport packet; and

demultiplexing the multiplexed transport stream by applying one or more of the plurality of rules to each transport packet in the multiplexed transport stream based on the encoding standard associated with the identifier of the transport packet.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the inserting comprises:

appending to the header the identifier corresponding to the identified encoding standard.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the inserting further comprises maintaining other pre-existing headers of the transport packet.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the inserting comprises:

replacing a field in the header with the identifier corresponding to the identified encoding standard.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the inserting comprises:

adding to the transport packet another header that includes the identifier corresponding to the identified encoding standard.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the encoding standard further comprises:

examining a field in a header of an internal packet carrying the encoded video or audio data within the payload of the transport packet.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

processing each transport packet having the inserted identifier in accordance with a rule selected from the plurality of rules, the selection based at least upon the identifier that corresponds to the encoding standard.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for each of the plurality of transport packets, loading a plurality of states, associated with a state machine, in a context that is associated with the identifier that corresponds to the encoding standard.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising, for each of the plurality of transport packets:

processing the transport packet having the inserted identifier;

updating the plurality of states during the processing; and

upon a completion of the processing, storing the plurality of states in association with the context.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of encoding standards includes MPEG transport, DirecTV transport, DVD input, Packetized Elementary Stream input, Elementary stream input, or DirecTV transport with MPEG-I.

11. A system comprising:

an input interface for receiving a multiplexed transport stream comprising a plurality of transport packets, wherein each of the plurality of transport packets in the multiplexed transport stream comprises a payload carrying encoded video or audio data, wherein the encoded video or audio data is encoded in accordance with an encoding standard from a plurality of encoding standards and is packetized before being included within the payload of the transport packet, and wherein at least some of the plurality of transport packets do not include a field within a header of the transport packet identifying the encoding standard associated with the payload of the transport packet;

logic configured to identify, for each of the plurality of transport packets in the multiplexed transport stream, the encoding standard associated with the encoded video or audio data being carried within the payload of the transport packet;

logic configured to insert, for each of the plurality of transport packets in the multiplexed transport stream, an identifier into the header of the transport packet, the identifier corresponding to the encoding standard associated with the encoded video or audio data being carried within the payload of the transport packet; and

a transport demultiplexer configured to receive the transport packet including the inserted identifier and to demultiplex the multiplexed transport stream by applying one or more of a plurality of rules to each transport packet in the multiplexed transport stream based on the encoding standard associated with the identifier of the transport packet.

12. The system of claim 11, the system further comprising:

logic configured to insert, for each of the plurality of transport packets, a length of the transport packet into the transport packet.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the logic configured to insert a length comprises:

logic configured to insert, in each of the plurality of transport packets, another header that includes the length of the transport packet.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the logic configured to insert a length comprises:

logic configured to add, to each of the plurality of transport packets, another header that includes the length of the transport packet.

15. The system of claim 11, the transport demultiplexer further comprising:

logic configured to select, for each of the plurality of transport packets, a rule from a plurality of rules based at least upon the identifier that corresponds to the encoding standard; and

logic configured to apply, for each of the plurality of transport packets, the selected rule to the transport packet.

16. The system of claim 11, further comprising a memory, wherein the transport demultiplexer comprises:

logic configured to load from the memory a plurality of states associated with a state machine having a context, the context being associated with the identifier that corresponds to the encoding standard.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the transport demultiplexer further comprises:

logic configured to process each of the plurality of transport packets and to update the plurality of states during the processing; and

logic to store the plurality of states in association with the context upon a completion of the processing.

18. A system comprising:

a local storage;

a playback engine configured to retrieve an elementary stream from the local storage and to packetize the elementary stream to produce a transport packet stream, the transport packet stream including a plurality of transport packets, wherein each of the plurality of transport packets in the transport packet stream comprises a payload carrying encoded video or audio data, wherein the encoded video or audio data is encoded in accordance with an encoding standard from a plurality of encoding standards and is packetized before being included within the payload of the transport packet; and

wherein at least some of the plurality of transport packets do not include a field within a header of the transport packet identifying the encoding standard associated with the payload of the transport packet;

one or more registers configured to, for each of the plurality of transport packets in the transport packet stream;

identify the encoding standard associated with the encoded video or audio data being carried within the payload of the transport packet;

insert an identifier into the header of the transport packet, the identifier corresponding to the encoding standard associated with the encoded video or audio data being carried within the payload of the transport packet; and

a transport demultiplexer configured to receive the transport packet including the inserted identifier and to demultiplex the multiplexed transport stream by applying one or more of a plurality of rules to each transport packet in the multiplexed transport stream based on the encoding standard associated with the identifier of the transport packet.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the transport demultiplexer is further configured to:

select a rule from a plurality of rules based at least upon the identifier corresponding to the encoding standard; and

to apply the selected rule to the transport packet including the inserted identifier.