Method for discontinuous transmission, in sections, of data in a network of distributed stations, as well as a network subscriber station as a requesting appliance for carrying out a method such as this, and a network subscriber station as a source appliance for carrying out a method such as this

• US 20050120132A1
• Filed: 11/12/2004
• Published: 06/02/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Diatek Licensing LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing SA (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Hutter, Ingo
• Granted Patent: US 8,195,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/234
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

When data streams are being transmitted in a network of distributed stations (10, 20) in which the network subscriber stations are controlled on the basis of the Internet Protocol, a resource (such as a file) can very often be transmitted using the HTTP-GET method. However, this does not support discontinuous transmission, in sections, of data, as is required, for example, in the case of trick modes (search processes) for a video film. The invention describes an extension to the known HTTP-GET method, such that this application is likewise possible. For this purpose, additional parameters relating to the required search are transmitted to the source appliance (10) in the HTTP-GET request. The source appliance (10) then sends the respective data sections for the search.

Claims

1. A method for discontinuous transmission, in sections, of data in a network of distributed stations between a first (10) and a second network subscriber station (20), comprising the following steps:

creation of an HTTP-GET request stating the required parameters, such as the file name, file type, path, playback speed, playback direction, and initial position,

transmission of the HTTP-GET request to the source appliance (10)

discontinuous transmission, in sections, of the data from the source appliance (10) to the destination appliance (20) in a HTTP response.

2. The Method according to claim 1, wherein the data is transmitted using the HTTP chunked transfer encoding mode.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, with a specific status code being returned in the response for the transmission of the requested data, signaling that it has been possible to interpret the required parameters in the HTTP-GET request correctly.

4. The method as claimed in one of claims 2, with the required parameter or parameters from the HTTP-GET request being repeated in the response for the transmission of the requested data, as an acknowledgement that it has been possible to interpret the required parameter or parameters in the HTTP-GET request correctly.

5. The method as claimed in claim 2, with the discontinuous transmission, in sections, of the data being used in the case of the request for a fast search.

6. The method as claimed in claim 2, with the data relating to multimedia data, in particular audio or video data.

7. The method as claimed claim 2, with a section of the video data, in particular the data for a video frame, in each case being transmitted with an indication of the data length as a block for discontinuous transmission, in sections, using the HTTP chunked transfer encoding mode.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, with the data for the intracoded video frames or for the unidirectionally coded video frames in each case being transmitted as a data section for an MPEG2-coded video film.

9. The method as claimed in claim 2, with the network of distributed stations being a network which is controlled on the basis of the Internet Protocol.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, with the network subscriber stations (10, 20) being designed for control in accordance with the UPnP specification, with UPnP representing Universal Plug and Play.

11. A network subscriber station as a requesting appliance for carrying out the method as claimed in claim 1, comprising program means for creation of an HTTP-GET request with details of the required parameters for discontinuous transmission, in sections, of the data, such as the file name, the file type, the path, the playback speed, the playback direction, the initial position, on request.

12. The network subscriber station as claimed in claim 11, having means for reception of a command for carrying out a fast search process, and means for activation of the program means for creation of the HTTP-GET request in response to this.

13. The network subscriber station as a source appliance for carrying out the method as claimed in claim 1, comprising program means for evaluation of a received HTTP-GET request from a destination appliance (20) for discontinuous transmission, in sections, of data with details of the required parameters such as the file name, the file type, the path, the playback speed, the playback direction, the initial position, and means for transmission, of the requested data to the destination appliance (20).

14. The network subscriber station as claimed in claim 13, wherein said transmission means transfer said requested data using the HTTP chunked transfer encoding mode.

15. The network subscriber station as claimed in claim 14, with means being provided for the transmission of MPEG video data which, in the course of HTTP chunked transfer encoding, transmit the data for the intracoded video frames and/or for the unidirectionally coded video frames in the MPEG video data stream as separate data sections.

16. The network subscriber station as claimed in claim 14, with the means for discontinuous transmission, in sections, of the data in each case also adding position details, which indicate the position of the data section in the data stream.

17. The network subscriber station as claimed in claim 13, with formatting means being provided which return a specific status code in the response for the transmission of the requested data, signaling that it has been possible to interpret the required parameters in the HTTP-GET request correctly.

18. The network subscriber station as claimed in claim 13, with formatting means being provided which repeat the required parameter or parameters from the HTTP-GET request in the response for the transmission of the requested data, as an acknowledgement that it has been possible to interpret the required parameter or parameters in the HTTP-GET request correctly.