Video traffic smoothing
AssigneeCox Communications, Inc.
InventorBenny Bing
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Video traffic smoothing may be provided. A video stream may be divided into segments for transmission. For each segment, a desired transmission rate and a range of possible transmission rates may be established. The desired transmission rate may be evaluated to determine whether the rate may result in an overflow and/or a starvation of a memory buffer associated with a receiver. The transmission rate and/or the segment size may be varied to avoid these scenarios.
Claims20
A method for providing video traffic smoothing, the method comprising:
- establishing a transmission rate range for transmission of a video stream comprising an upper bound and a lower bound;
- dividing the video stream into a plurality of segments, wherein each segment comprises a plurality of frames of the video stream;
- selecting a maximum rate limit for a first segment of the plurality of segments;
- determining whether the maximum rate limit exceeds the upper bound of the transmission rate range;
- in response to determining that the maximum rate limit does not exceed the upper bound of the transmission rate range, determining whether the lower bound of the transmission rate range exceeds the maximum rate limit;
- and
- in response to determining that the lower bound of the transmission rate range does not exceed the maximum rate limit, transmitting the plurality of frames of the first segment at the maximum rate limit.
A system for providing video traffic smoothing, the system comprising:
- a communication processor comprising a memory storage coupled to a processing unit, wherein the processing unit is operative to:
- divide an encoded video stream into a plurality of segments;
- for at least one of the plurality of segments, compute a transmission rate for transmitting the at least one segment to a receiver comprising a memory buffer;
- and
- transmit the segment to the receiver at the computed transmission rate.
A computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for providing video traffic smoothing, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:
- receiving an encoded video stream;
- dividing the video stream into a plurality of segments, wherein each segment comprises a plurality of video frames;
- selecting a maximum transmission rate for at least one segment of the plurality of segments;
- establishing a range of possible transmission rates for the at least one segment comprising an upper bound and a lower bound;
- determining whether the maximum transmission rate comprises a rate at which the at least one segment can be transmitted to a receiving device without causing starvation of a memory buffer associated with the receiving device;
- in response to determining that the maximum transmission rate comprises a rate at which the at least one segment can be transmitted to the receiving device without causing starvation of the memory buffer associated with the receiving device, determining whether the maximum transmission rate comprises a rate at which the at least one segment can be transmitted to the receiving device without causing an overflow of the memory buffer associated with the receiving device;
- and
- in response to determining that the maximum transmission rate comprises a rate at which the at least one segment can be transmitted to the receiving device without causing an overflow of the memory buffer associated with the receiving device, transmitting the at least one segment to the receiving device at the maximum transmission rate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.