Locating points of interest using references to media frames within a packet flow

• US 8,966,551 B2
• Filed: 11/01/2007
• Issued: 02/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: VerSteeg, William C., Oran, David, Drisko, Robert, Gahm, Joshua
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin, Jason K
• Application Number:
  US11/933,483
• Publication Number:
  US 20090119722A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,672 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/87
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234381 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. decreasing the frame rate by frame skipping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2381 Adapting the multiplex stream to a specific network, e.g. an Internet Protocol [IP] network transmission of MPEG streams over ATM H04L12/5601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4384 involving operations to reduce the access time, e.g. fast-tuning for reducing channel switching latency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6437 Real-time Transport Protocol [RTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method comprises receiving a stream of transport packets encapsulating media packets, and generating a reference to the point-of-interest media packet relative to the location of the point-of-interest within the transport packet stream. The reference is generated for each media packet that is identified as a point-of-interest.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a media stream of transport packets encapsulating media packets;

identifying at least one of the media packets as a point-of-interest (POI) media packet;

generating, for each of the least one of the media packets that is identified as the POI media packet, a reference to the POI media packet relative to the location of the POI media packet within the media stream;

generating a POI stream comprising POI packets, each of the POI packets encapsulating at least one reference to the POI media packet, the POI stream being a separate stream from the media stream of transport packets;

sending the POI stream with the media stream;

wherein generating the reference to the POI media packet comprises generating a flow reference to point to flow identifier fields of the transport packet that encapsulates the at least one of the media packets identified as the POI media packet and generating a transport packet reference to point to a packet identifier field of the transport packet;

wherein the flow identifier fields comprise a destination address, a destination port, and a synchronization source identifier (SSRC); and

wherein generating the reference further comprises;

generating a first flow identifier and a first transport packet reference for a first POI media packet, wherein the first transport packet reference further comprises a first position reference in the first transport packet for the first POI media packet,

determining, for a second POI media packet, whether the second POI media packet is in a first transport packet, and

generating, in response to the second POI media packet being from the first transport packet, a second position reference in the first transport packet for the second POI media packet.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the flow reference comprises:

generating a first portion and a second portion to the reference;

setting the first portion of the reference to a first value that identifies one of the transport packets encapsulating the POI media packet; and

setting the second portion of the reference to a second value that identifies the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the flow reference comprises:

generating a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion to the reference;

setting the first portion of the reference to a flow identifier of the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

setting the second portion of the reference to a packet identifier of the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

setting the third portion of the reference to a value that identifies the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the stream of transport packets comprises a stream of RTP packets, and wherein generating the flow reference comprises:

generating a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion to the reference;

setting the first portion of the reference to an RTP flow identifier of the RTP packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

setting the second portion of the reference to an RTP sequence number of the RTP packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

setting the third portion of the reference to a sequence number of the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, in response to the second POI media packet not being from the first transport packet, a second flow identifier and a second transport packet reference for the second POI media packet.

5. A system comprising:

memory with logic; and

a processor configured with the logic to;

receive a media stream of transport packets encapsulating media packets;

identify one or more of the media packets as a points-of-interest media packets;

generate, for each media packet identified as the point-of-interest (POI) media packet, a reference to the POI media packet relative to a location of the POI media packet within the transport packets of the media stream;

generate a POI stream comprising POI packets, each of the POI packets encapsulating at least one generated reference to the POI media packet, the POI stream being a separate stream from the media stream of transport packets;

sending the POI stream with the media stream;

wherein generating the reference to the POI media packets comprises generating a flow reference to point to flow identifier fields of the each transport layer packet that encapsulates one of the media packets identified as a point-of-interest and generating a transport packet reference to point to a packet identifier field of the transport packet;

wherein the flow identifier fields comprise a destination address, a destination port, and a synchronization source identifier (SSRC); and

wherein generating the reference further comprises;

generating a first flow identifier and a first transport packet reference for a first POI media packet, wherein the first transport packet reference further comprises a first position reference in the first transport packet for the first POI media packet,

determining, for a second POI media packet, whether the second POI media packet is in a first transport packet, and

generating, in response to the second POI media packet not being from the first transport packet, a second flow identifier and a second transport packet reference for the second POI media packet.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to:

encapsulate the reference to the POI media packet in another transport packet.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to:

transmit the reference to the POI media packet.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to:

transmit the stream of transport packets.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein generating the flow reference further comprises:

generate a first portion and a second portion;

set the first portion of the reference to a first value that identifies the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

set the second portion of the reference to a second value that identifies the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein generating the flow reference further comprises:

generate a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion;

set the first portion of the reference to a flow identifier of the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

set the second portion of the reference to a packet identifier of the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

set the third portion of the reference to a value that identifies the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method locating point of interest in a media stream, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:

receiving a media stream of transport packets encapsulating media packets;

identifying one or more of the media packets as points of interest;

generating, for each media packet identified as the point-of-interest (POI) media packet, a reference to the POI media packet relative to the location of the POI media packet within the transport packet of the media stream; and

generating a POI stream comprising POI packets, the POI stream being a separate stream from the media stream of transport packets, each of the POI packets encapsulating at least one reference to the POI media packet, wherein generating the POI stream comprising POI media packets comprises generating PIO packets comprising generated reference to the POI media packet wherein the generated reference comprises a flow reference to point to flow identifier fields of the transport layer packet that encapsulates one of the media packets identified as a point-of-interest and a transport packet reference to point to a packet identifier field of the transport packet;

wherein the flow identifier fields comprise a destination address, a destination port, and a synchronization source identifier (SSRC); and

wherein generating the reference further comprises;

generating a first flow identifier and a first transport packet reference for a first POI media packet, wherein the first transport packet reference further comprises a first position reference in the first transport packet for the first POI media packet,

determining, for a second POI media packet, whether the second POI media packet is in a first transport packet, and

generating, in response to the second POI media packet being from the first transport packet, a second position reference in the first transport packet for the second POI media packet.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising:

encapsulating the reference to the POI media packet in another transport packet.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising:

encapsulating the reference to the POI media packet in another transport packet; and

transmitting the stream of transport packets and the another transport packet.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising:

transmitting the stream of transport packets.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein generating the reference further comprises:

generating a first portion and a second portion;

setting the first portion of the reference to a first value that identifies the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

setting the second portion of the reference to a second value that identifies the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein generating the reference further comprises:

generating a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion;

setting the first portion of the reference to a flow identifier of the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

setting the second portion of the reference to a packet identifier of the transport packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

setting the third portion of the reference to a value that identifies the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the stream of transport packets comprises a stream of RTP packets, and adding the reference further comprises:

generating a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion;

setting the first portion of the reference to an RTP flow identifier of the RTP packet encapsulating the POI media packet;

setting the second portion of the reference to an RTP sequence number of the RTP packet encapsulating the POI media packet; and

setting the third portion of the reference to a sequence number of the POI media packet within the encapsulating one of the transport packets.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the method further comprising:

generating, in response to the second POI media packet not being from the first transport packet, a second flow identifier and a second transport packet reference for the second POI media packet.