Methods and apparatus for transmitting data based on interframe dependencies

A method for multicasting video data in a wireless network, the video data comprising a plurality of video frames, each video frame of the plurality of video frames having a respective criterion indicative of a decoding dependency among the plurality of video frames, the method comprising:

• determining an input data rate for the video data;
• determining an available output bandwidth for an infrastructure device in the wireless network;
• selectively obtaining a subset of the plurality of video frames when the input data rate is greater than the available output bandwidth;
• and
• for each video frame of the subset of the plurality of video frames:
• identifying the respective criterion for the respective video frame;
• when the criterion corresponds to a relatively high significance, transmitting the respective video frame by the infrastructure device in accordance with a reliable transmission scheme;
• and
• when the criterion corresponds to a relatively low significance, transmitting the respective video frame by the infrastructure device in accordance with a default transmission scheme.

A wireless infrastructure device for a wireless network, the wireless infrastructure device comprising:

• a communication module, the communication module being configured to communicate with a plurality of access devices on the wireless network with an available output bandwidth, and the communication module being configured to receive video data having an input data rate, the video data including a plurality of video frames, each frame having a respective metric indicative of decoding significance among the plurality of video frames;
• and
• a processor coupled to the communication module, wherein the processor and the communication module are cooperatively configured to:
• selectively obtain a subset of the plurality of video frames when the input data rate is greater than the available output bandwidth;
• and
• for each video frame of the subset of the plurality of video frames:
• identify the metric for the respective video frame;
• transmit the respective video frame in accordance with an enhanced transmission scheme when the metric corresponds to a relatively high decoding significance;
• and
• transmit the respective video frame in accordance with a default transmission scheme when the metric corresponds to a relatively low decoding significance.