APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ENABLING COMMUNICATION WHEN NETWORK CONNECTIVITY IS REDUCED OR LOST DURING A CONVERSATION AND FOR RESUMING THE CONVERSATION WHEN CONNECTIVITY IMPROVES

• US 20100069060A1
• Filed: 09/02/2009
• Published: 03/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Voxer IP LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rebelvox LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Inventors: RANNEY, Matthew J., PANTTAJA, James T., PANTTAJA, Mary G., KATIS, Thomas E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,325,662 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/423
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4061 Push-to services, e.g. push-to-talk or push-to-video
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A method for enabling communication when network connectivity is reduced or lost during a conversation and for resuming the same conversation when connectivity improves.

Claims

1. A method for conducting a conversation, comprising:

establishing a conversation between a first communication device and a second communication device over a connection on a network;

continually determining during the conversation when the usable bit rate on the connection is either (i) at or above a bit rate threshold or (ii) below the bit rate threshold, the bit rate threshold defining a transmission bit rate over the connection sufficient for available media to be transmitted over the connection and rendered in near real-time, and depending on the determined usable bit rate either;

(i) when the usable bit rate on the connection is at or above a bit rate threshold;

(a) transmitting the media as it becomes available at the first communication device to the second communication device at or above the bit rate threshold; and

(b) enabling the media transmitted at or above the bit rate threshold to be rendered at the second communication device in near real-time in a real-time rendering mode;

or

(ii) when the ascertained usable bit rate on the connection falls below the bit rate threshold;

(c) storing the media at the first communication device when the ascertained usable bit rate on the connection falls below the bit rate threshold; and

(d) transmitting the media from storage to the second communication device as conditions on the connection permit when the usable bit rate falls below the bit rate threshold,

whereby the conversation may continue in a time-shifted mode when the usable bit rate is (ii) below the bit rate threshold and may resume in near real-time in the real-time rendering mode when the usable bit rate is (i) at or above the bit rate threshold after falling below the bit rate threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, further enabling, when the usable bit rate is (i) at or above the bit rate threshold, the transmitted media to be optionally rendered at the second communication device either in near real-time in the real-time rendering mode or at an arbitrary later time in the time-shifted mode.

3. The method of claim 2, further enabling the seamless transition of the rendering of the transmitted media at the second communication device between the real-time rendering mode and the time-shifted mode.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing all of the media of the conversation at the first communication device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing all of the media of the conversation at the second communication device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the media further comprises transmitting a full bit rate version of the media, wherein the full bit rate version of the media was created when the media was originally encoded.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating at the first communication device a reduced bit rate version of the media created using the first communication device when the usable bit rate on the connection is insufficient for transmitting a full bit rate representation of the media over the connection at a rate sufficient for the full bit rate representation to be rendered in near real-time by the second communication device; and

either;

transmitting the reduced bit rate version of the media when the usable bit rate on the connection is sufficient for transmitting the reduced bit rate representation of the media at a rate sufficient for the reduced bit rate version to be rendered in near real-time by the second communication device;

or

transmitting the media from storage as conditions on the connection permit when the usable bit rate on the connection is not sufficient for transmitting the reduced bit rate representation of the media at a rate sufficient for the reduced bit rate version to be rendered in near real-time in the real-time rendering mode by the second communication device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the reduced bit rate version of the media is generated by one of the following:

(i) using different Codec settings;

(ii) using different Codecs;

(iii) using a compression algorithm;

or (iv) any combination of (i) through (iii).

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising eventually transmitting the full bit rate version of the media corresponding to the transmitted reduced bit rate version of the media when conditions on the connection permit.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising indicating at the first communication device when the conversation is in the real-time rendering mode.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising indicating at the second communication device when the conversation is in the real-time rendering mode.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising indicating at the first communication device when the conversation is in the time-shifted rendering mode.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising indicating at the second communication device when the conversation is in the time-shifted rendering mode.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an option of creating media pertaining to the conversation at the first communication device when the usable bit rate falls below the bit rate threshold on the connection.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an option of creating media pertaining to the conversation at the second communication device when the usable bit rate falls below the bit rate threshold on the connection.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an option of terminating the conversation at the first communication device.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an option of terminating the conversation at the second communication device.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein after determining when the usable bit rate on the connection again exceeds the bit rate threshold after falling below the bit rate threshold, providing at the second communication device the options of:

(i) reviewing in the time-shifted mode the media of messages transmitted from storage by the first communication device as conditions on the connection permit when the usable bit rate was below the bit rate threshold;

or

(ii) resuming the conversation in the near real-time rendering mode.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting media from storage when the usable bit rate falls below the bit rate threshold further comprises transmitting the media from storage over the connection within an adaptive transmission range, wherein the adaptive transmission range is below the bit rate threshold.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the network connection is a wireless network connection.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the network connection is a wired network connection.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second communication devices each comprise one of the following:

land-line phone, wireless phone, cellular phone, satellite phone, computer, radio, server, satellite radio, tactical radio or tactical phone.

23. The method claim 1, wherein the media comprises one or more of the following types of media:

video, text, sensor data, position or GPS information, radio signals, or a combination thereof.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the usable bit rate is the maximum available bit rate on the connection.