Transmission control protocol (TCP) based video streaming

• US 9,124,673 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2013
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Somayazulu, Vallabhajosyula S., Feng, Wu-Chi, Moustafa, Hassnaa, Moses, Danny, Siddegowda, Sangeetha, Venkatachalam, Muthaiah M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Won, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): NIRJHAR, NASIM NAZRUL
• Application Number:
  US14/041,446
• Publication Number:
  US 20150095508A1
• Time in Patent Office: 701 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/193 at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4343 Extraction or processing of packetized elementary streams [PES]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4347 Demultiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/631 Multimode Transmission, e.g. transmitting basic layers and enhancement layers of the content over different transmission paths or transmitting with different error corrections, different keys or with different transmission protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6375 for requesting retransmission , e.g. of data packets lost or corrupted during transmission from serverARQ protocols H04L1/18; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64707 for transferring content from a first network to a second network, e.g. between IP and wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8547 involving timestamps for synchronizing content

Abstract

Technology for reducing delay in data streaming at a wireless device while improving re-buffering and video quality is disclosed. A missing data segment can be detected based on an out-of-order data segment being received in a plurality of data segments from a network element in a wireless network. A fake acknowledgement (ACK) can be sent to the network element in the wireless network, based on the context information, acknowledging that the missing data segment was received at the wireless device. The out-of-order data segment without the missing data segment can be provided for display at the wireless device.

Claims

1. A transmission control protocol (TCP) receiver having computer circuitry to reduce delay in data streaming, the computer circuitry configured to:

receive a plurality of transmission control protocol (TCP) segments, at a TCP receiver buffer in a digital memory device, from a network element;

detect a missing TCP segment based on an out-of-order TCP segment being received in the plurality of TCP segments;

determine that the missing TCP segment to be received prior to the out-of-order TCP segment, at the TCP receiver, can be dropped based on context information associated with the data streaming, wherein the context information includes network layer context information and application layer context information; and

provide the out-of-order TCP segment without the missing TCP segment that is dropped, from the TCP receiver buffer, to a display device.

2. The computer circuitry of claim 1, further configured to drop the missing TCP segment based on the context information when the missing TCP segment is not received within a predetermined time threshold.

3. The computer circuitry of claim 1, wherein the network layer context information includes at least one of:

explicit loss indication including media access control (MAC) layer packet loss, loss in relation to congestion discrimination via TCP receiver buffer content analysis, or explicit network congestion information.

4. The computer circuitry of claim 1, wherein the application layer context information includes at least one of:

buffer status, frame type, saliency of video frames, type of video content, or other context such as device context information, or user context information.

5. The computer circuitry of claim 1, further configured to send a fake acknowledgement (ACK) message to the network element, based on the context information, acknowledging that the missing TCP segment was received at the TCP receiver.

6. The computer circuitry of claim 5, wherein the fake ACK message includes a request for the TCP segments that logically follow the out-of-order TCP segment to be communicated to the TCP receiver.

7. The computer circuitry of claim 1, further configured to send an acknowledgement message to the network element requesting that the missing TCP segment be re-communicated to the TCP receiver, wherein the missing TCP segment cannot be dropped based on the context information.

8. The computer circuitry of claim 1, further configured to drop the missing TCP segment when the context information indicates that a wireless link error caused the out-of-order TCP segment to be delivered out of order to the TCP receiver buffer.

9. The computer circuitry of claim 1, further configured to determine that the missing TCP segment should not be dropped when the context information indicates that network congestion caused the out-of-order TCP segment to be delivered out of order to the TCP receiver buffer.

10. The computer circuitry of claim 1, wherein the TCP receiver operates in user equipment (UE).

11. The computer circuitry of claim 10, wherein the UE includes an antenna, a touch sensitive display screen, a speaker, a microphone, a graphics processor, an application processor, internal memory, or a non-volatile memory port.

12. A method for reducing delay in data streaming at a wireless device, the method comprising:

detecting a missing data segment based on an out-of-order data segment being received in a plurality of data segments from a network element in a wireless network;

determining that the missing data segment to be received prior to the out-of-order data segment can be dropped based on context information associated with the data streaming, the context information including network layer context information and application layer context information;

sending a fake acknowledgement (ACK) to the network element in the wireless network, based on the context information, acknowledging that the missing data segment was received at the wireless device; and

providing the out-of-order data segment without the missing data segment that is dropped for display at the wireless device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the data segments are transmission control protocol (TCP) based data segments.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising dropping the missing data segment when not received within a time threshold.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising configuring the time threshold dynamically based on network layer context information and application layer context information.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising identifying the context information at the wireless device.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising identifying the context information at the network element in the wireless network.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving the plurality of data segments at a transmission control protocol (TCP) receiver, wherein the TCP receiver is included in the wireless device.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the wireless device is selected from a group consisting of a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a Bluetooth receiver, a 802.11 receiver, and combinations thereof.

20. A wireless device for data streaming, the device comprising:

a receiving module configured to receive a plurality of transmission control protocol (TCP) segments, at a TCP receiver buffer, from a network element, wherein the receiving module is stored in a digital memory device or is implemented in a hardware circuit;

a detection module configured to detect a missing TCP segment based on an out-of-order TCP segment being received in the plurality of TCP segments, wherein the detection module is stored in a digital memory device or is implemented in a hardware circuit; and

a segment dropping module configured to drop the missing TCP segment to be received prior to the out-of-order data segment based on context information associated with the data streaming, wherein the context information includes network layer context information and application layer context information, wherein the segment dropping module is stored in a digital memory device or is implemented in a hardware circuit.

21. The wireless device of claim 20, further comprising a segment delivery module configured to provide the out-of-order TCP segment without the missing TCP segment that is dropped, from the TCP receiver buffer, to a display device, wherein the segment delivery module is stored in a digital memory device or is implemented in a hardware circuit.

22. The wireless device of claim 20, further comprising an acknowledgement module configured to send a fake acknowledgement message to the network element, based on the context information, acknowledging that the missing TCP segment was received at the TCP receiver, wherein the acknowledgement module is stored in a digital memory device or is implemented in a hardware circuit.

23. The wireless device of claim 20, wherein the segment dropping module is further configured to drop the missing TCP segment based on the context information and the missing TCP segment not being received within a time threshold.