Adapting encoded bandwidth

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10116715-B2
Application number	US-201514701406-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 30, 2015
Priority date	Mar 16, 2015
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

A method comprising: conducting a communication session between a first terminal and a second terminal, the session comprising transmitting an encoded bitstream from an encoder of the first terminal over a channel to the second terminal; measuring a bandwidth capacity experienced over the channel at multiple different times, thereby collecting a history of bandwidth measurements for the channel; based on the history of bandwidth measurements, obtaining at least a selected upper bandwidth constraint for the encoded bitstream; and during the session, dynamically adapting an encoded bandwidth with which to encode the bitstream, by dynamically selecting the encoded bandwidth based on one or more current conditions of the channel, but constrained by at least said upper bandwidth constraint.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of determining an encoding rate, comprising:
determining a plurality of bandwidth measurements of a network path between a first device and a second device based on data communication over the path;
determining a maximum bandwidth of the network path based on the plurality of bandwidth measurements;
setting a bandwidth cap based on a first percentage of the maximum bandwidth in response to the maximum bandwidth meeting a first criterion, and setting the bandwidth cap based on a second different percentage of the maximum bandwidth in response to the maximum bandwidth meeting a second criterion;
determining a minimum bandwidth of the network path based at least in part on the plurality of bandwidth measurements;
determining an encoding rate of an encoder to be between the bandwidth cap and the minimum bandwidth;
encoding data based on the determined rate; and
transmitting the encoded data over the network path.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising setting the bandwidth cap further based on a type of the network.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising setting the bandwidth cap further based on a screen size of the first device or the second device.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising setting the bandwidth cap based on one or more of spatial resolution and temporal resolution of a camera of the first device or the second device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first device and the second device each comprise a separate hardware speaker, the method further comprising selecting the percentage based on one or more characteristics of one or more of the hardware speakers.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising quantizing the plurality of bandwidth measurements, and determining the maximum bandwidth based on the quantized plurality of bandwidth measurements.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising counting a number of the plurality of bandwidth measurements that fall within each of a plurality of bandwidth ranges, and determining the maximum bandwidth based on the counts.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
including bandwidth measurements within a predetermined elapsed time in the counts and excluding from the counts bandwidth measurements occurring before the predetermined elapsed time;
determining first bandwidth measurements of the network path for a first session; and
determining second bandwidth measurements of the network path for a second session, wherein the plurality of bandwidth measurements includes the first bandwidth measurements and the second bandwidth measurements.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising setting the bandwidth cap to a first percentage of the maximum bandwidth in response to the maximum bandwidth being within a first range and setting the bandwidth cap to a second lower percentage of the maximum bandwidth in response to the maximum bandwidth being within a second higher range.

10. An apparatus for determining an encoding rate, comprising:
one or more hardware processors; and
a hardware memory, storing instructions that when executed by the one or more hardware processors, configures the one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising:
determining a plurality of bandwidth measurements of a network path between a first device and a second device based on data communication over the path,
determining a maximum bandwidth of the network path based on the plurality of bandwidth measurements,
setting a bandwidth cap based on a first percentage of the maximum bandwidth in response to the maximum bandwidth meeting a first criterion, and setting the bandwidth cap based on a second different percentage of the maximum bandwidth in response to the maximum bandwidth meeting a second criterion
determining a minimum bandwidth of the network path based at least in part on the plurality of bandwidth measurements,
determining an encoding rate of an encoder to be between the bandwidth cap and the minimum bandwidth,
encoding data based on the determined rate, and
transmitting the encoded data over the network path.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the hardware memory stores further instructions that configure the one or more hardware processors to perform further operations comprising setting the bandwidth cap further based on a screen size of the first device or the second device.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the hardware memory stores further instructions that configure the one or more hardware processors to perform further operations comprising setting the bandwidth cap further based on one or more one or more of spatial resolution and temporal resolution of a camera characteristics of the first device or the second device.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the first device and the second device each comprise a separate hardware speaker, and wherein the hardware memory stores further instructions that configure the one or more hardware processors to perform further operations comprising setting the bandwidth cap further based on one or more speaker characteristics of one or more of the hardware speakers.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the hardware memory stores further instructions that configure the one or more hardware processors to perform further operations comprising quantizing the plurality of bandwidth measurements, and determining the maximum bandwidth based on the quantized plurality of bandwidth measurements.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the hardware memory stores further instructions that configure the one or more hardware processors to perform further operations comprising counting a number of the plurality of bandwidth measurements that fall within each of a plurality of bandwidth ranges, and determining the maximum bandwidth based on the counts.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the hardware memory stores further instructions that configure the one or more hardware processors to perform further operations comprising including bandwidth measurements within a predetermined elapsed time in the counts and excluding from the counts bandwidth measurements occurring before the predetermined elapsed time.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed cause a hardware processor to perform a method of determining an encoding rate, the method comprising:
determining a plurality of bandwidth measurements of a network path between a first device and a second device based on data communication over the path;
determining a maximum bandwidth of the network path based on the plurality of bandwidth measurements;
setting a bandwidth cap based on a first percentage of the maximum bandwidth in response to the maximum bandwidth meeting a first criterion, and setting the bandwidth cap based on a second different percentage of the maximum bandwidth in response to the maximum bandwidth meeting a second criterion
determining a minimum bandwidth of the network path based at least in part on the plurality of bandwidth measurements;
determining an encoding rate of an encoder to be between the bandwidth cap and the minimum bandwidth;
encoding data based on the determined rate; and
transmitting the encoded data over the network path.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Rödbro Christoffer Asgaard
• Bergkvist Andreas
• Jefremov Andrei

Classifications

• H04L65/1066

  Session management · CPC title

• H04L65/60 Primary

  Network streaming of media packets · CPC title

• H04L65/1069 Primary

  Session establishment or de-establishment · CPC title

• H04L65/762

  at the source  (reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355) · CPC title

• H04L65/80

  Responding to QoS · CPC title