Managed degradation of a video stream
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- determining if a first portion of a display stream is transmissible via a transmission link such that the display stream will be displayed in real time at a client device;
compressing the first portion of the display stream in a first compression manner to produce a first compressed display stream portion when it is determined that the first portion of the display stream is not transmissible over the transmission link such that the display stream will be displayed in real time at the client device;
wherein the first portion of the display stream is determined to be transmissible such that the display stream will be displayed in real time when an expected time of transmission of a second portion of the display stream via the transmission link is within a predetermined tolerance of an actual time of transmission of the second portion of the display stream via the transmission link; and
wherein the first portion of the display stream includes data compressed in a second compression manner different than the first compression manner, wherein the first compression manner represents a high degree of data compression than the second compression manner.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and a method for simultaneous transmission of multiple media streams in a fixed bandwidth network are disclosed herein. The system is comprised of a central gateway media server and a plurality of client receiver units. The input media streams arrive from an external source and are then transmitted to the client receiver units in a compressed format. A state machine on the gateway media server detects if the network bandwidth is close to saturation. In one embodiment, the potential bandwidth saturation is measured by matching the time when the start of unit of media for each stream against the estimated transmission time for that unit. When any one actual transmission time exceeds its estimated transmission time by a predetermined threshold value, the network is deemed to be close to saturation, or already saturated, and the state machine executes a process of selecting at least one stream as a target for lowering total bandwidth usage. Once the target stream associated with a client receiver unit is chosen, the amount of data transmitted by the target stream is reduced, which could result in a lower data transmission rate. In one embodiment, the amount of data is reduced by a gradual degradation of the precision of the data, resulting in a greater potential for data compression, and/or by gradually reducing the resolution of the data of the target stream.
79 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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determining if a first portion of a display stream is transmissible via a transmission link such that the display stream will be displayed in real time at a client device; compressing the first portion of the display stream in a first compression manner to produce a first compressed display stream portion when it is determined that the first portion of the display stream is not transmissible over the transmission link such that the display stream will be displayed in real time at the client device; wherein the first portion of the display stream is determined to be transmissible such that the display stream will be displayed in real time when an expected time of transmission of a second portion of the display stream via the transmission link is within a predetermined tolerance of an actual time of transmission of the second portion of the display stream via the transmission link; and wherein the first portion of the display stream includes data compressed in a second compression manner different than the first compression manner, wherein the first compression manner represents a high degree of data compression than the second compression manner. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method comprising:
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receiving a first data stream representative of a series of display frames; managing a degradation of the first data stream based on a bandwidth of a transmission link to generate a second data stream representative of the series of display frames, wherein a degree of degradation of the first data stream is incremented for successive portions of the second data stream until a first compressed portion of the second data stream is determined to be transmissible such that the second data stream will be displayed in real time; transmitting the second data stream via the transmission link; wherein the first compressed portion of the second data stream is determined to be transmissible such that the second data stream will be displayed in real time when an expected time of transmission of a second compressed portion of the second data stream via the transmission link is within a predetermined tolerance of an actual time of transmission of the second compressed portion of the second data stream via the transmission link; and wherein the first data stream is degraded to generate the second data stream using a first compression technique and wherein the degree of degradation is incremented based on implementing different compression parameters for each of the successive portion of the first data stream. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. A system comprising:
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means for determining if a first portion of a display stream is transmissible via a transmission link such that the display stream will be displayed in real time; means for compressing the first portion of the display stream in a first compression manner to produce a first compressed display stream portion when it is determined that the first portion of the display stream is not transmissible over the transmission link such that the display stream will be displayed in real time, wherein the first portion of the display stream is determined to be transmissible such that the display stream will be displayed in real time when an expected time of transmission of a second portion of the display stream via the transmission link is within a predetermined tolerance of an actual time of transmission of the second portion of the display stream via the transmission link; and wherein the first portion of the display stream includes data compressed in a second compression manner different than the first compression manner, wherein the first compression manner represents a high degree of data compression than the second compression manner.
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17. A computer readable memory embodying a computer program, the computer program comprising:
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instructions to manipulate one or more processors to determine if a first portion of a display stream is transmissible via a transmission link such that the display stream will be displayed in real time; and instructions to manipulate one or more processors to compress the first portion of the display stream in a first compression manner to produce a first compressed display stream portion when it is determined that the first portion of the display stream is not transmissible over the transmission link such that the display stream will be displayed in real time; wherein the first portion of the display stream is determined to be transmissible such that the display stream will be displayed in real time when an expected time of transmission of a second portion of the display stream via the transmission link is within a predetermined tolerance of an actual time of transmission of the second portion of the display stream via the transmission link; and wherein the first portion of the display stream includes data compressed in a second compression manner different than the first compression manner, wherein the first compression manner represents a high degree of data compression than the second compression manner.
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18. A system comprising:
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means for receiving a first data stream representative of a series of display frames; means for managing a degradation of the first data stream based on a bandwidth of a transmission link to generate a second data stream representative of the series of display frames, wherein a degree of degradation of the first data stream is incremented for successive portions of the second data stream until a first compressed portion of the second data stream is determined to be transmissible such that the second data stream will be displayed in real time; means for transmitting the second data stream via the transmission link; wherein the first compressed portion of the second data stream is determined to be transmissible such that the second data stream will be displayed in real time when an expected time of transmission of a second compressed portion of the second data stream via the transmission link is within a predetermined tolerance of an actual time of transmission of the second compressed portion of the second data stream via the transmission link; and wherein the first data stream is degraded to generate the second data stream using a first compression technique and wherein the degree of degradation is incremented based on implementing different compression parameters for each of the successive portion of the first data stream.
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19. A computer readable memory embodying a computer program, the computer program comprising:
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instructions to manipulate one or more processors to receive a first data stream representative of a series of display frames; instructions to manipulate one or more processors to manage a degradation of the first data stream based on a bandwidth of a transmission link to generate a second data stream representative of the series of display frames, wherein a degree of degradation of the first data stream is incremented for successive portions of the second data stream until a first compressed portion of the second data stream is determined to be transmissible such that the second data stream will be displayed in real time; instructions to manipulate one or more processors to transmit the second data stream via the transmission link; wherein the first compressed portion of the second data stream is determined to be transmissible such that the second data stream will be displayed in real time when an expected time of transmission of a second compressed portion of the second data stream via the transmission link is within a predetermined tolerance of an actual time of transmission of the second compressed portion of the second data stream via the transmission link; and wherein the first data stream is degraded to generate the second data stream using a first compression technique and wherein the degree of degradation is incremented based on implementing different compression parameters for each of the successive portion of the first data stream.
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Specification