System and method for dynamic bearer selection for immersive video collaboration in mobile wireless networks

• US 8,755,342 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2011
• Issued: 06/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Iyer, Jayaraman, Andriantsiferana, Laurent
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Jianye
• Application Number:
  US13/253,730
• Publication Number:
  US 20130091526A1
• Time in Patent Office: 986 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6181 involving transmission via a mobile phone network arrangements for providing broadcast or conference services to substation in data switching networks in combination with wireless systems H04L12/189; wireless uplink channel access H04W74/004
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6437 Real-time Transport Protocol [RTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64707 for transferring content from a first network to a second network, e.g. between IP and wireless

Abstract

The disclosure relates to managing the video and audio streams of a video collaboration session in a communication network. Specifically, the streams of the video collaboration session are managed by primitive messages that are sent in-band with the data of the stream. These in-band primitives are then used to modify the wireless bearers or channels that are carrying the streams to a mobile device. The mechanism can dynamically adapt the wireless bearers based on the primitives to ensure characteristics such as Quality of Service and packet loss are within certain parameters while minimizing the resources used to provide the specified service.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of video streams and a plurality of audio streams that are part of a video collaboration session in a transport protocol;

determining that in-band information regarding the plurality of video and audio streams is provided in transport control protocol primitives generated by a network device involved in communicating the plurality of video streams and a plurality of audio streams in the video collaboration session;

performing an inspection of the video stream and the audio stream to map the streams to radio frequency (RF) bearers where an indicator is used to identify the mapping; and

adapting the RF bearers based on information in received in-band primitives of an associated stream in the video collaboration session, wherein the information of the received in-band primitives are used to determine dynamic changes to the RF bearers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transport control protocol primitive is a modified real-time transport control protocol (RTCP) that includes an identifier to allow multiple streams to be transported on the same channel and an extension is used to carry control information.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an ECHO primitive in-band that provides measurements of a network path and quality of service (QoS) used by a radio access network in adapting the RF bearers.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising triggering dedicated bearer packet data protocol (PDP) establishment and traffic flow template (TFT) mapping when the video collaboration session is detected.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting in-band one of a plurality of bitstreams that are part of a video stream of the video collaboration based on observed error rates in that bitstream.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the adapting of the RF bearers occurs at least once every second based on in-band primitive information regarding the video collaboration session.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the adapting of the RF bearers includes selection of bearer with defined characteristics and changing characteristics of the RF bearer including bandwidth, burst, and packet loss.

8. An apparatus comprising:

an interface configured to receive a plurality of video streams and a plurality of audio streams that are part of a video collaboration session in a transport protocol;

a processor configured to inspect the plurality of video and audio streams in the video collaboration to determine that in-band information is provided in transport control protocol primitives and to perform a deep packet inspection of the video stream and the audio stream to map the streams to radio frequency (RF) bearers where an indicator is used to identify the mapping;

a module configured to adapt the RF bearers based on information in received in-band primitives of an associated stream in the video collaboration session, wherein the information of the received in-band primitives are used to determine dynamic changes to the RF bearers.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the transport control protocol primitive is a modified real-time transport control protocol (RTCP) that includes an identifier to allow multiple streams to be transported on the same channel and an extension is used to carry control information.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein one of the transport control protocol primitives is an ECHO primitive in-band that provides measurements of a network path and quality of service (QoS) used by the radio access network in adapting the RF bearers.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the module triggers dedicated bearer packet data protocol (PDP) establishment and traffic flow template (TFT) mapping when the video collaboration session is detected.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the module adjusts in-band one of a plurality of bitstreams that are part of a video stream of the video collaboration based on observed error rates in that bitstream.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the module is configured to adapt the RF bearers at least once every second based on in-band primitive information regarding the video collaboration session.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the adapting of the RF bearers by the module includes selection of bearer with defined characteristics and changing characteristics of the RF bearer including bandwidth, burst, and packet loss.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions operable to cause a data processing apparatus to:

receive, at a radio access network, a plurality of video streams and a plurality of audio streams that are part of a video collaboration session in a transport protocol;

determine that in-band information regarding the plurality of video and audio streams is provided in transport control protocol primitives;

initiate a handshake procedure with a remote peer that is handling the video collaboration to configure the in-band management of the video collaboration session;

map the streams to radio frequency (RF) bearers where an indicator is used to identify the mapping; and

adapt the RF bearers based on received in-band primitives that describe characteristics of an associated stream in the video collaboration session, wherein the characteristics of the associated stream are used to determine dynamic changes to the RF bearers.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the transport control protocol primitive is a modified real-time transport control protocol (RTCP) that includes an identifier to allow multiple streams to be transported on the same channel and an extension is used to carry control information.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to receive an ECHO primitive in-band that provides measurements of a network path and quality of service (QoS) used by the radio access network in adapting the RF bearers.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to trigger dedicated bearer packet data protocol (PDP) establishment and traffic flow template (TFT) mapping when the video collaboration session is detected.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to adjust in-band one of a plurality of bitstreams that are part of a video stream of the video collaboration based on observed error rates in that bitstream.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the adapting of the RF bearers occurs at least once every second based on in-band primitive information regarding the video collaboration session.