Radio frequency condition aware audio buffering

A source device comprising:

• a communication unit;
• an audio source;
• a communication controller;
• and
• at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that are executable by the communication controller to:
• receive, from the audio source and at a rate, audio data to be wirelessly transmitted to a sink device;
• store, in a buffer, the audio data as a sequence of audio blocks, wherein each audio block includes audio data for a respective output time;
• cause the communication unit to transmit, to the sink device and via a wireless link between the source device and the sink device, audio blocks of the sequence of audio blocks;
• remove, by the communications controller and from the buffer, an audio block corresponding to a particular audio block responsive to the particular audio block being successfully received by the sink device;
• determine a current condition of the wireless link;
• and
• automatically adjust, based on the current condition of the wireless link, the rate at which audio data is received from the audio source, by the communication controller outputting to the audio source a request to reduce the rate at which the audio source inserts audio blocks into the buffer to defer dropping an oldest audio block from the buffer when the data buffer becomes full.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause a communication controller of a source device to:

• receive, from an audio source of the source device, audio data to be wirelessly transmitted to a sink device, wherein the audio data is received from the audio source at a rate;
• store, in a buffer, the audio data as a sequence of audio blocks, wherein each audio block includes audio data for a respective output time;
• transmit, to the sink device, audio blocks of the sequence of audio blocks using a wireless link between the source device and the sink device;
• remove, from the buffer, an audio block corresponding to a particular audio block responsive to the particular audio block being successfully received by the sink device;
• determine a current condition of the wireless link;
• and
• automatically adjust, based on the current condition of the wireless link, the rate at which audio data is received from the audio source by at least outputting, to the audio source, a request to reduce the rate at which the audio source inserts audio blocks into the buffer to defer dropping an oldest audio block from the buffer when the data buffer becomes full.