Service quality measurement and indication for multicast broadcast in a wireless network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9549330-B2
Application number	US-201314030706-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 18, 2013
Priority date	Sep 18, 2013
Publication date	Jan 17, 2017
Grant date	Jan 17, 2017

Abstract

A service quality metric, that measures the quality of a multicast broadcast that is being received by a mobile device, may be determined. In one implementation, a method may include receiving a radio signal corresponding to a multicast broadcast of content that was encoded using a forward error correction (FEC) technique in which the content is segmented and encoded as a plurality of blocks; and reassembling the content corresponding to the received radio signal. The method may further include determining an FEC failure rate based on a relative occurrence of the successfully reassembled blocks to the unsuccessfully reassembled blocks; determining a service quality metric based on the FEC failure rate; and providing a visual indication of the service quality metric.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a mobile device, a radio signal corresponding to a multicast broadcast of video content that was encoded using a forward error correction (FEC) technique in which the content is segmented and encoded as a plurality of blocks;
attempting to reassemble, by the mobile device, the video content corresponding to the received radio signal, the reassembling including, for each block of the plurality of the blocks:
successfully reassembling the block, or
unsuccessfully reassembling the block;

calculating, by the mobile device, an FEC failure rate based on a relative occurrence of the successfully reassembled blocks to the unsuccessfully reassembled blocks in a time series, corresponding to a portion of the video content, of the successfully reassembled and the unsuccessfully reassembled blocks, the FEC failure rate being calculated based on partially overlapping predetermined time periods or number of blocks in the time series, wherein a period at which the FEC failure rate is calculated is based on a length of the predetermined time period or number of blocks relative to a length of the overlap between the predetermined time period or number of blocks;
determining, by the mobile device, a service quality metric based on the FEC failure rate; and
providing, by the mobile device, a visual indication of the service quality metric.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the service quality metric further includes:
determining the service quality metric, as a binary value, based on a comparison of the FEC failure rate to a threshold FEC failure rate.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the service quality metric further includes:
determining the FEC failure rate as a ratio of a number of the unsuccessfully reassembled blocks to a total number of successfully and unsuccessfully reassembled blocks; and
calculating the service quality metric as one minus the FEC failure rate.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the service quality metric is determined for each of a plurality of video signals that are received as part of the video content.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the FEC failure rate is determined based on an occurrence of a particular number of blocks that are successfully or unsuccessfully reassembled.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the service metric is recalculated for each of a plurality of the overlapping predetermined time periods or number of blocks.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the service quality metric is determined on a per-video stream basis.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein attempting to reassemble the content further includes, for each block of the plurality of blocks:
determining whether a minimum number of symbols, required to reassemble the block, have been received, where a total number of symbols corresponding to each of the blocks of the plurality of blocks is greater than the minimum number of symbols; and
reassembling the block based on at least the minimum number of symbols.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the service quality metric is determined as a moving average, weighted moving average, or exponential moving average based on a plurality of previous determinations of the FEC failure rate.

10. A mobile device comprising:
a memory; and
at least one processor to execute instructions in the memory to:
receive a radio signal corresponding to a multicast broadcast of video content that was encoded using a forward error correction (FEC) technique in which the video content is segmented and encoded as a plurality of blocks;
attempt to reassemble the video content corresponding to the received radio signal, the reassembling including, for each block of the plurality of the blocks:
successfully reassembling the block, or
unsuccessfully reassembling the block;

calculate an FEC failure rate based on a relative occurrence of the successfully reassembled blocks to the unsuccessfully reassembled blocks in a time series, corresponding to a portion of the video content, of the successfully reassembled and the unsuccessfully reassembled blocks, the FEC failure rate being calculated based on partially overlapping predetermined time period or number of blocks in the time series, wherein a period at which the FEC failure rate is calculated is based on a length of the predetermined time period or number of blocks relative to a length of the overlap between the predetermined time period or number of blocks;
determine a service quality metric based on the FEC failure rate; and
provide a visual indication of the service quality metric.

11. The mobile device of claim 10 , wherein, when calculating the service quality metric, the at least one processor is to further execute the instructions in the memory to:
determine the service quality metric, as a binary value, based on a comparison of the FEC failure rate to a threshold.

12. The mobile device of claim 10 , wherein, when calculating the service quality metric, the at least one processor is to further execute the instructions in the memory to:
determine the FEC failure rate as a ratio of a number of the unsuccessfully reassembled blocks to a total number of successfully and unsuccessfully reassembled blocks; and
calculate the service quality metric as one minus the FEC failure rate.

13. The mobile device of claim 10 , wherein the FEC failure rate is recalculated for each of a plurality of the overlapping predetermined time period or number of blocks.

14. The mobile device of claim 10 , wherein, when attempting to reassemble the content, the at least one processor is to further execute the instructions in the memory to, for each block of the plurality of blocks:
determine whether a minimum number of symbols, required to reassemble the block, have been received, where a total number of symbols corresponding to each of the blocks of the plurality of blocks is greater than the minimum number of symbols; and
reassemble the block based on at least the minimum number of symbols.

15. The mobile device of claim 10 , wherein the service quality metric is determined as a moving average, weighted moving average, or exponential moving average based on a plurality of previous determinations of the FEC failure rate.

16. A method comprising:
receiving, by a mobile device, a radio signal corresponding to a multicast broadcast of content that was encoded using a forward error correction (FEC) technique in which the content is segmented and encoded as a plurality of blocks, where each of the plurality of blocks are encoded as a plurality of FEC symbols;
reassembling, by the mobile device, a block, of the plurality of blocks, based on a minimum number of symbols corresponding to the block being received, where a total number of symbols corresponding to the block is greater than the minimum number of symbols;
calculating, by the mobile device, an FEC failure rate based on a portion of the blocks, in a time series of the plurality of blocks, that are not able to be reassembled, the FEC failure rate being calculated based on a partially overlapping predetermined time periods or number of blocks, wherein a period at which the FEC failure rate is calculated is based on a length of the predetermined time period or number of blocks relative to a length of the overlap between the predetermined time period or number of blocks;
determining, by the mobile device, a service quality metric based on the FEC failure rate; and
providing, by the mobile device, a visual indication of the service quality metric.

17. The method of claim

Assignees

• Verizon Patent & Licensing Inc
• Cellco Partnership Dba Verizon
• Verizon Patent & Licensing Inc

Inventors

• Gu John
• Aguirre Sergio
• Lui Danny Chick-Leung

Classifications

• H04L1/203

  Details of error rate determination, e.g. BER, FER or WER · CPC title

• H04L2001/0093

  Point-to-multipoint · CPC title

• H04W24/08 Primary

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title

• H04L1/0009

  by adapting the channel coding (H04L1/1812 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L1/0045

  Arrangements at the receiver end · CPC title