Reception device, transmission/reception system, reception method, and program

• US 9,490,994 B2
• Filed: 08/14/2013
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kure, Yoshinobu, Igarashi, Tatsuya
• Primary Examiner(s): Sam, Phirin
• Application Number:
  US14/427,810
• Publication Number:
  US 20150249545A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,182 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0001 Systems modifying transmission characteristics according to link quality, e.g. power backoff adaptive data allocation for multicarrier modulation H04L5/0044; controlling transmission power for radio systems H04W52/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0009 by adapting the channel coding H04L1/1812 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1886 with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• 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 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/40 for selective distribution or broadcast

Abstract

There is provided a reception device including a reception unit that receives stream data transmitted by multicast transmission from a plurality of transmitters at respective different transmission rates in a physical layer, an acquisition unit that acquires environment change information related to a change in a network environment with the transmitters, and a connection destination selection unit that selects, on the basis of the acquired environment change information, one transmitter from among the plurality of transmitters as a connection destination of the reception unit.

Claims

1. A reception device comprising circuitry configured to operate as:

a reception unit that receives stream data transmitted by multicast transmission from a plurality of transmitters at respective different transmission rates;

an acquisition unit that acquires environment change information related to a change in a network environment with the transmitters; and

a connection destination selection unit that selects, on the basis of the acquired environment change information, one transmitter from the plurality of transmitters as a connection destination of the reception unit, wherein;

a first transmitter of the plurality of transmitters transmits a same content in multicast transmission as a content transmitted by a second transmitter of the plurality of transmitters,

a data rate of an encoded content transmitted by the first transmitter is different from a data rate of an encoded content transmitted by the second transmitter,

a transmission rate of the first transmitter is set based on the data rate of the encoded content transmitted by the first transmitter, and

a transmission rate of the second transmitter is set based on the data rate of the encoded content transmitted by the second transmitter.

2. The reception device according to claim 1, wherein

the acquisition unit acquires a received signal strength indicator from the transmitters, and

the connection destination selection unit selects, on the basis of the acquired received signal strength indicator, one transmitter from among the plurality of transmitters as a connection destination of the reception unit.

3. The reception device according to claim 1, wherein

the acquisition unit acquires a TCP Friendly Rate Control (TFRC) transmission rate according to a TFRC rate control scheme, and

the connection destination selection unit selects, on the basis of the acquired TFRC transmission rate, one transmitter from among the plurality of transmitters as a connection destination of the reception unit.

4. The reception device according to claim 1, wherein

the connection destination selection unit switches a connection destination to a transmitter corresponding to a next largest transmission rate following a transmission rate of a currently connected transmitter, or to a transmitter corresponding to a next smallest transmission rate following a transmission rate of a currently connected transmitter, as the one transmitter.

5. The receiving device according to claim 1, wherein

the plurality of transmitters are provided in a relay device that connects a transmission device, which generates and transmits the stream data of different transmission rates, and the reception device.

6. The reception device according to claim 1, wherein

the plurality of transmitters are provided in a transmission device that generates and transmits the stream data of different transmission rates.

7. The reception device according to claim 1, wherein

the plurality of transmitters have respective different transmission ranges.

8. A transmission/reception system comprising:

a plurality of transmitters that transmit stream data by multicast transmission at respective different transmission rates; and

one or a plurality of reception devices that receive the stream data transmitted by multicast transmission from the transmitters,

wherein the reception device includes circuitry configured to operate as

a reception unit that receives stream data transmitted by multicast transmission from the plurality of transmission units at respective different transmission rates,

an acquisition unit that acquires environment change information related to a change in a network environment with the transmitters, and

a connection destination selection unit that selects, on the basis of the acquired environment change information, one transmitter from the plurality of transmitters as a connection destination of the reception unit, wherein;

a first transmitter of the plurality of transmitters transmits a same content in multicast transmission as a content transmitted by a second transmitter of the plurality of transmitters,

a data rate of an encoded content transmitted by the first transmitter is different from a data rate of an encoded content transmitted by the second transmitter,

a transmission rate of the first transmitter is set based on the data rate of the encoded content transmitted by the first transmitter, and

a transmission rate of the second transmitter is set based on the data rate of the encoded content transmitted by the second transmitter.

9. A reception method comprising:

receiving stream data transmitted by multicast transmission from a plurality of transmitters at respective different transmission rates;

acquiring environment change information related to a change in a network environment with the transmitters; and

selecting, on the basis of the acquired environment change information, one transmitter from the plurality of transmitters as a connection destination of a reception unit, wherein;

a first transmitter of the plurality of transmitters transmits a same content in multicast transmission as a content transmitted by a second transmitter of the plurality of transmitters,

a data rate of an encoded content transmitted by the first transmitter is different from a data rate of an encoded content transmitted by the second transmitter,

a transmission rate of the first transmitter is set based on the data rate of the encoded content transmitted by the first transmitter, and

a transmission rate of the second transmitter is set based on the data rate of the encoded content transmitted by the second transmitter.

10. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium encoded with instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

receiving stream data transmitted by multicast transmission from a plurality of transmitters at respective different transmission rates;

acquiring environment change information related to a change in a network environment with the transmitters; and

selecting, on the basis of the acquired environment change information, one transmitter from the plurality of transmitters as a connection destination of a reception unit, wherein;

a first transmitter of the plurality of transmitters transmits a same content in multicast transmission as a content transmitted by a second transmitter of the plurality of transmitters,

a data rate of an encoded content transmitted by the first transmitter is different from a data rate of an encoded content transmitted by the second transmitter,

a transmission rate of the first transmitter is set based on the data rate of the encoded content transmitted by the first transmitter, and

a transmission rate of the second transmitter is set based on the data rate of the encoded content transmitted by the second transmitter.