Methods and systems for data transmission

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9344470-B2
Application number	US-201414312542-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 23, 2014
Priority date	Sep 14, 2006
Publication date	May 17, 2016
Grant date	May 17, 2016

Abstract

Example methods and systems for transmitting data are presented. In one example, a plurality of streams of video data may be received from at least one data source into at least one buffer of a router. Each of the streams of video data may represent a same video program, wherein each of the streams of video data may correspond to a unique visual resolution relative to at least some other streams, and wherein each of the streams of video data may include a plurality of contiguous, non-overlapping portions of video data. A request may be received from a device to transmit a single one of the portions of video data to the device. In response to the request, a portion of one of the streams of video data may be transmitted from the at least one buffer of the router to the device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for transmitting video data, the method comprising:
receiving a plurality of streams of video data from at least one data source into at least one buffer of a router via a multicast interface of the router, wherein each of the plurality of streams of video data represents a same video program, wherein each of the plurality of streams of video data corresponds to a unique visual resolution relative to at least some other streams of the plurality of streams, and wherein each of the plurality of streams of video data comprises a plurality of contiguous, non-overlapping portions of video data;
receiving a request from a device to transmit a single one of the portions of video data to the device; and
transmitting, in response to the request, a portion of one of the plurality of streams of video data from the at least one buffer of the router over a communication path from the router to the device using a point-to-point transmission protocol.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting, from the router to the device, data rate information regarding a data rate of each of the plurality of streams of video data, wherein one of the plurality of streams of video data having a higher video resolution compared to another of the plurality of streams of video data comprises a higher data rate compared to the other of the plurality of streams of video data.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving, via the multicast interface, the data rate information prior to transmitting the data rate information to the device.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
apportioning, at the router, each of the plurality of streams of video data into the plurality of portions; and
generating, at the router, the data rate information based on the apportioning of each of the plurality of streams of video data.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the request comprises a selection of one of the plurality of streams of video data from which the single one of the portions of video data is requested to be transmitted to the device, wherein the indication is based on the data rate information, and wherein the single one of the portions of video data to be transmitted to the device is from the selected one of the plurality of streams of video data.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the selection is further based on a current communication link quality of the communication path from the router to the device.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the selection is further based on a transmission bandwidth of the communication path from the router to the device.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
selecting, at the router, one of the plurality of streams of video data from which the single one of the portions of video data is to be transmitted to the device.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the selection is based on at least one of a current communication link quality of the communication path from the router to the device or a transmission bandwidth of the communication path from the router to the device.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the request comprises a desired one of the plurality of streams of video data from which the single one of the portions of video data is requested to be transmitted to the device, and wherein the selection is her based on the desired one of the plurality of streams of video data.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
each of the plurality of streams of video data comprises hierarchical data comprising sequential data in which future video data depends on previous video data; and
each portion of each of the plurality of streams of video data may be decoded at the device without reference to another portion of the stream of video data.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
generating, at the router, initial hierarchical data for each of at least some portions of at least one of the plurality of streams of video data, wherein the initial hierarchical data includes an access point to enable decoding, at the device, of a corresponding portion of the at least one of the plurality of streams of video data without reference to another portion of the at least one of the plurality of streams of video data.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the point-to-point transmission protocol comprises at least one of a user datagram protocol or a transmission control protocol.

14. A router for transmitting video data, the system comprising:
at least one buffer configured to store at least one portion of each of a plurality of streams of video data, wherein each of the plurality of streams of video data corresponds to a unique visual resolution relative to at least some other streams of the plurality of streams, and wherein each of the plurality of streams of video data comprises a plurality of contiguous, non-overlapping portions of video data;
a multicast interface configured to receive the plurality of streams of video data from at least one data source;
a point-to-point interface configured to receive a request from a device to transmit a single portion of video data to the device, and in response to the request, to transmit a portion of one of the plurality of streams of video data from the at least one buffer to the device over a communication path from the outer to the de-ice using a point-to-point transmission protocol; and
control logic configured to process the request to select the one of the plurality of streams of video data from which the portion is to be transmitted to the device.

15. The router of claim 14 , wherein:
the at least one buffer is further configured to store data rate information regarding a data rate of each of the plurality of streams of video data, wherein one of the plurality of streams of video data having a higher video resolution compared to another of the plurality of streams of video data comprises a higher data rate compared to the other of the plurality of streams of video data.

16. The router of claim 15 , wherein:
the control logic is further configured to select the one of the plurality of streams of video data based on the data rate information.

17. The router of claim 15 , wherein:
the control logic is further configured to transmit data rate information via the point-to-point interface to the device.

18. The router of claim 15 , wherein:
the control logic is further configured to receive the data rate information from the at least one data source via the multicast interface.

19. The router of claim 15 , wherein the control logic is further configured to:
apportion each of the plurality of streams of video data into the plurality of portions; and
generate the data rate information based on the apportioning of each of the plurality of streams of video data.

20. The router of claim 14 , wherein:
each of the plurality of streams of video data includes hierarchical data comprising sequential data in which future video data depends on previous video data; and
the control logic is further configured to generate initial hierarchical data for each of at least some portions of at least one of the plurality of streams of video data, wherein the initial hierarchical data includes an access point to enable decoding, at the device, of a corresponding portion of the at least one of the plurality of streams of video data without reference to another portion of the at least one of the plurality of streams of video data.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium com

Assignees

• Opentv Inc

Inventors

• Tinsman John

Classifications

• H04N21/64769

  for rate control (flow control in packet networks H04L47/10) · CPC title

• H04N21/4384

  involving operations to reduce the access time, e.g. fast-tuning for reducing channel switching latency · CPC title

• H04N21/234327

  by decomposing into layers, e.g. base layer and one or more enhancement layers · CPC title

• H04N21/4431

  characterized by the use of Application Program Interface [API] libraries · CPC title

• H04L67/104

  Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks · CPC title