REMOTE TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

• US 20080075031A1
• Filed: 08/26/2007
• Published: 03/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LiveU Ltd. (LiveU, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: LiveU Ltd. (LiveU, Inc.)
• Inventors: COHEN, Avichai, OHAYON, Rony Haim
• Granted Patent: US 7,948,933 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/316
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0697 using spatial multiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0041 Arrangements at the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0045 Arrangements at the receiver end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0058 Block-coded modulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0071 Use of interleaving interleaving per se H03M13/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2212/00 Encapsulation of packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/02 Details ; arrangements for supplying electrical power along data transmission lines systems for transmitting signals via power distribution lines H04B3/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/25 with rate being modified by the source upon detecting a change of network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/9057 Arrangements for supporting packet reassembly or resequencing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/324 in the data link layer [OSI layer 2], e.g. HDLC
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2383 Channel coding or modulation of digital bit-stream, e.g. QPSK modulation arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by adapting the channel coding H04L1/0009; analogue front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4382 Demodulation or channel decoding, e.g. QPSK demodulation analog front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6143 involving transmission via a satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• 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: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 : in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 : using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 : Setup of multiple wireless link connections

Abstract

A virtual broadband transmitting unit includes a stream generator to generate a multiplicity of data streams from an incoming media datastream, and a transmission manager to control the upload of the multiplicity of data streams along a multiplicity of transmission channels to at least one wireless communication network. A virtual broadband receiver includes means to receive a multiplicity of media data streams from a multiplicity of data connections, and an assembly engine to assemble the data streams into a single media stream.

Claims

1. A virtual broadband transmitting unit comprising:

a stream generator to generate a multiplicity of data streams from an incoming media datastream; and

a transmission manager to control the upload of said multiplicity of data streams along a multiplicity of transmission channels to at least one wireless communication network.

2. The unit according to claim 1 and wherein said incoming media data stream comprises at least one of video and audio data.

3. The unit according to claim 1 and also comprising a video encoder to encode said media data stream.

4. The unit according to claim 1 and where said at least one wireless network is at least one of the following:

a mobile cellular network, a WiFi network, a WiMax network and a satellite network.

5. The unit according to claim 1 and wherein said stream generator comprises a data packet generator comprising at least one of:

a forward error correction (FEC) processor to provide FEC codes to said datastream;

a packet encapsulator to generate numbered data packets from said data stream; and

an interleaver to shuffle said data packets.

6. The unit according to claim 5 and wherein said stream generator also comprises a queue buffer to receive said data packets from said packet generator and a retransmission queue to store copies of said packets for retransmission.

7. The unit according to claim 5 and wherein said stream generator comprises a multiplicity of modems to transmit said multiplicity of data streams.

8. The unit according to claim 7 wherein each said modem comprises an associated modem manager and wherein each said associated modem manager comprise means to pull a next said data packet from said data packet generator for transmission via said modem.

9. The unit according to claim 1 and also comprising a back channel for receiving feedback regarding at least one of the timeliness and quality of said multiplicity of data streams.

10. The unit according to claim 9 and wherein said feedback comprises at least one of missing data packets, reconstructed data packets, serial numbers and time stamps of packets received, and requests for retransmission of data.

11. The unit according to claim 9 and wherein said transmission manager comprises a traffic analyzer to analyze said feedback and adjust settings for components of said stream generator in response to said analysis.

12. The unit according to claim 10 and wherein said transmission manager comprises means to search a retransmission queue to locate a copy of at least one of said missing data packets and to forward a found copy for retransmission.

13. The unit according to claim 11 and wherein said components comprise at least one of a video encoder, a FEC processor, a packet encapsulator, an interleaver, a queue buffer, and a modem manager.

14. A virtual broadband receiver comprising:

means to receive a multiplicity of media data streams from a multiplicity of data connections; and

an assembly engine to assemble said data streams into a single media stream.

15. The unit according to claim 14 and wherein said media data streams comprise at least one of video and audio data.

16. The unit according to claim 14 and wherein said data streams comprise a series of data packets with serial numbers and arriving in a generally non serial order.

17. The receiver according to claim 16 and wherein said assembly engine comprises a jitter buffer comprising storage spaces for said data packets to be inserted in logical order according to said serial numbers.

18. The receiver according to claim 17 and wherein said jitter buffer also comprises:

means to view a logical receiving window comprising an area of said jitter buffer associated with said data packets possessing generally recently issued said serial numbers;

means to view a logical retransmission window comprising an area of said jitter buffer associated with said data packets possessing less recently issued said serial numbers than those associated with said logical receiving window; and

means to view a logical output window comprising an area of said jitter buffer associated with said data packets possessing less recently issued said serial numbers than those associated with said logical receiving window.

19. The receiver according to claim 18 and wherein said data packets also comprise FEC data.

20. The receiver according to claim 19 and wherein said assembly engine also comprises a FEC decoder to use said FEC data to reconstruct improperly received data packets and insert said reconstructed data packets into said smart jitter buffer as per their associated said serial numbers.

21. The receiver according to claim 19 and wherein said assembly engine also comprises a retransmit requester to request retransmission of said missing data packets whose associated said serial numbers are logically located in said retransmission window.

22. The receiver according to claim 21 and also comprising:

a back channel through which said retransmit request can be transmitted; and

a back channel manager to control the operations of said back channel.

23. The receiver of claim 22 and also comprising a statistics collector to collect statistics from the operation of said smart jitter buffer.

24. The receiver according to claim 23 and wherein said statistics comprise time stamps and said serial numbers associated with at least one of the following:

said data packets, said empty spaces, said reconstructed data packets, and said retransmission requests.

25. The receiver according to claim 18 and also comprising an output rate controller to regulate the rate at which said data packets are released from said output window.

26. The receiver according to claim 14 and also comprising a video decoder to decode video data included in said data packets.

27. A method for remote reporting comprising:

organizing video data generated at a remote reporting location into data packets; and

uploading said data packets via a multiplicity of modems through at least one wireless network to a broadcasting station.

28. The method according to claim 27 and wherein said at least one wireless network is at least one of the following:

a cellular network, WIFI, WIMAX or satellite.

29. The method according to claim 27 and wherein said at least one wireless network is at least two separate cellular networks.

30. The method according to claim 29 and wherein said at least two separate cellular networks use at least two different mobile telephone technologies.

31. The method according to claim 27 and also comprising:

receiving feedback regarding the success of said uploading;

analyzing said feedback; and

adjusting operational settings for said organizing and said multiplicity of modems in response to results of said analyzing.

32. The method according to claim 27 and also comprising generating packets with FEC codes.

33. The method according to claim 27 and also comprising interleaving the order of said packets prior to said uploading.

34. The method according to claim 27 and also comprising:

receiving retransmission requests for at least one improperly received said data packet; and

retransmitting said at least one improperly received data packet.

35. A method comprising:

receiving data packets along a multiplicity of channels from a remote reporting location, and

assembling a video stream from said data packets.

36. The method according to claim 35 and wherein said assembling comprises using a jitter buffer to arrange said data packets in a logical order.

37. The method according to claim 35 and wherein said jitter buffer comprises the following logical windows:

a receiving window, a retransmission window, and an output window.

38. The method according to claim 37 and also comprising sending retransmission requests for missing said data packets that are logically associated with said retransmission window.

39. The method according to claim 35 and also comprising:

tracking performance statistics for said assembling; and

transmitting said performance statistics to said remote reporting location.

40. The method according to claim 39 and wherein said performance statistics comprise performance details for modems used to upload said data packets from said remote reporting location.

41. The method according to claim 40 and wherein said performance details comprise at least one of the following:

missing said data packets, invalid said data packets, retransmission requests for said data packets, and length of transmission time for said data packets.

42. The method according to claim 39 and also comprising:

analyzing said performance statistics;

determining required changes to operational settings as per said analyzing; and

transmitting said required changes to said remote reporting location.