Transmitting digital video signals over an IP network

A method for transmitting digital video signals comprising:

• providing a transmitter node and a plurality of receiver nodes each connected to an IP network;
• providing at the transmitter node an input for receiving multiplexed compressed digital video in a MPEG2 Transport Stream form containing MPEG2 Transport Stream packets from a source;
• providing at each of the receiver nodes an output for transmitting multiplexed compressed digital video in a MPEG2 Transport Stream form to a respective receiver;
• at the transmitter node, extracting the data from the MPEG2 Transport Stream, encapsulating that data in IP network packets each containing the data from a plurality of MPEG2 Transport Stream packets and transmitting the IP network packets over the IP network from the transmitter node to the receiver node;
• at the receiver nodes, receiving the IP network packets, extracting the data therein, encapsulating the data into a MPEG2 Transport Stream, and transmitting the MPEG2 Transport Stream to the respective receiver;
• wherein the receiving node transmits the MPEG2 Transport Stream at a predetermined required output bit rate equal to the bit rate of the stream from the source;
• and wherein the transmitter node is arranged to address the IP network packages such that each transmitted packet is directed by the network to each of the receiver nodes in a multicast arrangement.

A method for transmitting digital video signals comprising:

• providing a transmitter node and a receiver node each connected to an IP network;
• providing at the transmitter node an input for receiving multiplexed compressed digital video in a MPEG2 Transport Stream form containing MPEG2 Transport Stream packets from a source;
• providing at the receiver node an output for transmitting multiplexed compressed digital video in a MPEG2 Transport Stream form to a receiver;
• at the transmitter node, extracting the data from the MPEG2 Transport Stream, encapsulating that data in IP network packets each containing the data from a plurality of MPEG2 Transport Stream packets and transmitting the IP network packets addressed to the receiver node over the IP network from the transmitter node to the receiver node;
• at the receiver node, receiving the IP network packets, extracting the data therein, encapsulating the data into a MPEG2 Transport Stream and transmitting the MPEG2 Transport Stream to the receiver;
• wherein the receiving node transmits the MPEG2 Transport Stream at a predetermined required output bit rate equal to the bit rate of the stream from the source;
• wherein the receiver node and the transmitter node are arranged to support DHCP configuration of its network interfaces to improve the manageability and to support DNS name resolution to improve the configurability of the operation.

A method for transmitting digital video signals comprising:

• providing a transmitter node and a receiver node each connected to an IP network;
• providing at the transmitter node an input for receiving multiplexed compressed digital video in an input MPEG2 Transport Stream form containing MPEG2 Transport Stream packets from a source;
• providing at the receiver node an output for transmitting multiplexed compressed digital video in an output MPEG2 Transport Stream form to a receiver;
• at the transmitter node, extracting the data from the MPEG2 Transport Stream, encapsulating that data in IP network packets each containing the data from a plurality of MPEG2 Transport Stream packets and transmitting the IP network packets addressed to the receiver node over the IP network from the transmitter node to the receiver node;
• at the receiver node, receiving the IP network packets, extracting the data therein, encapsulating the data into a MPEG2 Transport Stream and transmitting the MPEG2 Transport Stream to the receiver;
• wherein the receiving node transmits the MPEG2 Transport Stream at a predetermined required output bit rate equal to the bit rate of the stream from the source;
• wherein the receiving node provides buffering for accommodating network jitter and lost packages and for controlling the output bit rate;
• and wherein the buffering is controlled to provide a predetermined constant time delay between the input stream and the output stream.

A method for transmitting digital video signals comprising:

• providing a transmitter node and a receiver node each connected to an IP network;
• providing at the transmitter node an input for receiving multiplexed compressed digital video in an input MPEG2 Transport Stream form containing MPEG2 Transport Stream packets from a source;
• providing at the receiver node an output for transmitting multiplexed compressed digital video in an output MPEG2 Transport Stream form to a receiver;
• at the transmitter node, extracting the data from the MPEG2 Transport Stream, encapsulating that data in IP network packets each containing the data from a plurality of MPEG2 Transport Stream packets and transmitting the IP network packets addressed to the receiver node over the IP network from the transmitter node to the receiver node;
• at the receiver node, receiving the IP network packets, extracting the data therein, encapsulating the data into a MPEG2 Transport Stream and transmitting the MPEG2 Transport Stream to the receiver;
• wherein the receiving node transmits the MPEG2 Transport Stream at a predetermined required output bit rate equal to the bit rate of the stream from the source;
• wherein the receiving node provides buffering for accommodating network jitter and lost packages and for controlling the output bit rate;
• wherein the buffering includes a buffer for retaining a predetermined quantity of data the effective size of which before the data is released is changed depending upon bit rate;
• and wherein the output bit rate is controlled by varying the amount of data retained.

A method for transmitting digital video signals comprising:

• providing a transmitter node and a receiver node each connected to an IP network;
• providing at the transmitter node an input for receiving multiplexed compressed digital video in an input MPEG2 Transport Stream form containing MPEG2 Transport Stream packets from a source;
• providing at the receiver node an output for transmitting multiplexed compressed digital video in an output MPEG2 Transport Stream form to a receiver;
• at the transmitter node, extracting the data from the MPEG2 Transport Stream, encapsulating that data in IP network packets each containing the data from a plurality of MPEG2 Transport Stream packets and transmitting the IP network packets addressed to the receiver node over the IP network from the transmitter node to the receiver node;
• at the receiver node, receiving the IP network packets, extracting the data therein, encapsulating the data into a MPEG2 Transport Stream and transmitting the MPEG2 Transport Stream to the receiver;
• wherein the receiving node transmits the MPEG2 Transport Stream at a predetermined required output bit rate equal to the bit rate of the stream from the source;
• wherein the receiver and transmitter nodes include a remote monitoring function based on the SNMP protocol and a remote management and monitoring function via the WWW and HTTP protocol.