Active stream format for holding multiple media streams

In a computer system operable for connecting to a transport medium, a method of building an aggregated data stream in a logical structure on a storage medium in the computer system comprising:

• determining a packet size for the transport medium;
• storing data from multiple streams of data into packets;
• storing error correcting data in at least some of the packets;
• encapsulating the packets into the logical structure for the aggregated data stream;
• and
• storing information regarding a plurality of error correcting methods that are employed for the packets in the aggregated data stream into the logical structure,
• wherein the aggregated data stream is built prior to receiving a request for transmission of the aggregated data stream on the transport medium from a destination computer.

In a computer operable for connecting to a transport medium, a computer-readable storage medium holding instructions for encapsulating multiple streams of data into an aggregated data stream to be transmitted on the transport medium:

• determining a packet size for the transport medium;
• storing, on a storage device, at least one packet containing information about the aggregated data stream to form a header section in a logical structure that defines the aggregated data stream;
• storing, on the storage device, packets containing samples of data from the multiple data streams to form a data section in the logical structure;
• designating a portion of at least one packet in the data section for holding error correcting data;
• and
• storing, on the storage device, error correcting data in the designated portion of the at least one packet in the data section, wherein the error correcting data identifies a corresponding error correcting method for each of the encapsulated data streams, and further wherein the instructions are executed prior to receiving a request for transmission of the aggregated data stream on the transport medium from a destination computer.

A data processing system having:

• a source computer with a storage;
• a logical structure stored in the storage for encapsulating multiple data streams into an aggregated data stream defined by the logical structure, data from the data streams being incorporated in packets prior to a request being received by the source computer to transmit the aggregated data stream to a destination computer;
• and
• error correcting data encapsulated in the packets, wherein the error correcting data identifies a corresponding error correcting method for each of the encapsulated data streams.