Optimizing video-call quality of service

• US 9,118,801 B2
• Filed: 10/23/2012
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Tapia, Pablo, Lau, Kevin, Ionescu, Alexandru Catalin
• Primary Examiner(s): Ramakrishnaiah, Melur
• Application Number:
  US13/658,745
• Publication Number:
  US 20130100228A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,036 Days
• Field of Search: 348 1401- 1416
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2007/145 Handheld terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26216 involving the channel capacity, e.g. network bandwidth admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a schedule or organising the servicing of application requests taking into account QoS H04L67/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/14 Systems for two-way working H04N7/12, H04N7/173 take precedence

Abstract

Techniques to optimize video-call communications are disclosed. The link quality capability of a wireless video-call session and the requirements of the video-call session are determined. The link quality capability determination is based at least on measurements through the entire communications chain, including user, client device, operating system, application, air interface, cell sector, and backhaul parameters. Those parameters may be determined from static profiles, dynamically determined or be statistically derived. Client device response may include adapting the rate of data captured by a video camera, microphone, or other data capture device used in the video-call session. For video-conferencing scenarios, communications throughput is optimized by consolidating video streams.

Claims

1. A method of optimizing video-call quality substantively in real time, comprising:

determining at a communications terminal engaged in a video-call session, a link quality capability of a communications channel for the video-call session;

receiving or determining a characteristic related to the communications terminal or to another communications terminal engaged in the video-call session;

determining a link quality requirement for the video-call session based at least in part on the characteristic;

based on the link quality capability determination and the link quality requirement determination, changing at least one video-capture parameter;

based on the at least one video-capture parameter, capturing video data for the video-call session with at least one video-camera;

transcoding the captured video data; and

transmitting the captured video data as part of the video-call session.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the link quality capability and the link quality requirement occurs at a time determined by any one of:

a sampling time whose period is linear,

a sampling time whose period is interpolated, and

a sampling time which is dynamically set.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the link quality capability and the link quality requirement is triggered by any one of:

an application event trigger,

a radio signal quality, and

a notification of communications network congestion.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the communications terminal has a plurality of video-cameras that may capture video data for the video-call session, and at least one of the video-cameras has a different capture resolution than the other video-cameras;

and

the determining of the link quality requirement for the video-call session is based on which of the video-cameras is used to capture video data for the video-call session.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the video-capture parameter to be changed is any one of:

a video capture resolution, and

a number of frames per second to capture.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the video call link quality requirement determination is based in part on optimizing power draw on the communications terminal.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination of the link quality capability or the link quality requirement is manually triggered by a user.

8. A method of optimizing video-call quality substantively in real time, comprising:

determining a link quality capability of a communications channel for a video-call session for a plurality of parties, wherein the determining is based on at least one of the following characteristics;

a characteristic of a user participating as a party on the video-call session,

a characteristic of a client device used for the video-call session,

a characteristic of an operating system of a client device used for the video-call session,

a characteristic of a video-call application used for the video-call session,

a characteristic of a local cell sector in the wireless communications chain used for the video-call session,

a characteristic of an air interface between the client device in the wireless communications chain used for the video-call session, and

a characteristic of a backhaul communications infrastructure in the wireless communications chain used for the video-call session;

receiving or determining another characteristic related to the communications terminal or to another communications terminal engaged in the video-call session;

determining a link quality requirement for the video-call session based at least in part on the other characteristic; and

based on the determined link quality capability and on the determined link quality requirement, adapting the data capture rate for at least one party in the video call-session.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one characteristic used to determine the link quality capability of the communications channel for the video-call session is retrieved from a static profile.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one characteristic used to determine the link quality capability of the communications channel for the video-call session is obtained via calculating a statistical summary of a set of samplings of the at least one characteristic.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one characteristic used to determine the link quality capability of the communications channel for the video-call session is any one of:

a channel quality information (CQI) characteristic,

a sector load characteristic,

a carrier to interference ratio,

a discontinuous reception metric (DRX), and

a discontinuation transmission metric (DTX).

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the link quality capability determination is based in part on optimizing power draw on a communications terminal participating in the video-call session.

11. The method of claim wherein the at least one characteristic used to determine the link quality capability of the communications channel for the video-call session is dynamically determined substantially in real time.

14. A method of optimizing video-call quality for a video-call with a plurality of users substantially in real time, comprising:

receiving at a communications terminal of a party engaged in a video-call session at least one characteristic of another party engaged in the video-call session;

determining at the communications terminal, a link quality capability of a communications channel for the video-call session and a link quality requirement for the video-call session based on the received at least one characteristic; and

based on the link quality capability determination, adapting the data capture rate for at least one party in the video call-session.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one characteristic is any one of:

a load percentage, and

a measured achievable bitrate.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the link quality capability determination is based in part on optimizing power draw on a communications terminal participating in the video-call session.

17. A method of sampling video-call characteristics substantially in real time comprising:

measuring a link quality capability characteristic of a communications channel for a video-call session for a plurality of parties, wherein the characteristic is one of the following;

a characteristic of a user participating as a party on the video-call session,

a characteristic of a client device used for the video-call session,

a characteristic of an operating system of a client device used for the video-call session,

a characteristic of a video-call application used for the video-call session,

a characteristic of a local cell sector in the wireless communications chain used for the video-call session,

a characteristic of an air interface between the client device in the wireless communications chain used for the video-call session, and

a characteristic of a backhaul communications infrastructure in the wireless communications chain used for the video-call session;

measuring a link quality requirement for the video-call session;

determining an amount that the video-call data capture rate should be adapted based on the characteristic measurement and the link quality requirement measurement; and

storing the characteristic measurement, the link quality requirement measurement and the amount of the video call data capture rate adaptation in a knowledge base according to a correlation routine.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

sending a query to the knowledge base;

retrieving at least one stored characteristic measurement, at least one link quality requirement measurement, and at least one video call data capture rate adaptation from the knowledge base, based on the query; and

performing statistical analysis on the retrieved at least one stored characteristic measurement, at least one link quality requirement measurement, and at least one video call data capture rate adaptation.

19. A method to optimize a video conference substantially in real time, comprising:

receiving a video conference link quality requirement that is based on a characteristic of a communications terminal engaged in the video conference session;

determining at a communications terminal engaged in a video conference session, a link quality capability of a communications channel for the video conference session;

based on the determined link quality capability and the received video conference link quality requirement, changing at least one video-capture parameter;

based on the at least one video-capture parameter, capturing video data for the video conference session with at least one video-camera;

streaming the captured video data to a server;

receiving from the server a first and a second captured video data stream from a first other communications terminal and a second other communications terminal both engaged in the video conference session; and

presenting a composite of the received first captured video data stream and the received second captured video data stream.

20. A system for optimizing video-call quality substantially in real time, comprising:

receiving a characteristic relating to a wireless communications link for a video-call session;

determining at a communications terminal engaged in a video-call session, a link quality capability of a communications channel for the video-call session based at least on the received characteristic relating to the wireless communications link;

measuring a characteristic relating to the communications terminal;

determining at the communications terminal, a link quality requirement of the video-call session, based on the measured characteristic relating to the communications terminal;

based on the determined link quality capability and the determined link quality requirement, changing at least one video-capture parameter;

based on the at least one video-capture parameter, capturing video data for the video-call session with at least one video-camera;

transcoding the captured video data; and

transmitting the captured video data as part of the video-call session.