System and method for reliably communicating the content of a live data stream
View Patent ↗A method for communicating the content of a live data stream to a receiver using a plurality of channels comprising two encoder channels used to encode the live data content prior to transmission. Initially a plurality of segments of a live data stream are received, wherein each segment contains segment data. A forward error correction algorithm is applied to each segment's data, thereby producing FEC-encoded segment data. The FEC-encoded segment data is contained within an FEC-encoded block, resulting in a corresponding plurality of FEC-encoded blocks being generated. Each FEC-encoded block is copied to a sub-channel on both a first encoder channel and a second encoder channel, resulting in a plurality of FEC-encoder blocks residing on the first and second encoder channels. The first and second encoder channels differ in the number of sub-channels they contain (interleaving depth), and accordingly the arrangement of the FEC-encoded blocks in the first and second encoder channels are different. A first cross-section of the FEC-encoded segment data contained within the FEC-encoded blocks resident in the first encoder channel is added to a first transmit block T 0 . Similarly, A first cross-section of the FEC-encoded segment data contained within the FEC-encoded blocks resident in the second encoder channel is added to a second transmit block T 1 . The first and second transmit blocks are then communicated to the receiver.
1. A method for communicating the content of a live data stream to a receiver using a plurality of channels comprising one or more main channels having at least two sub-channels, the method comprising:
receiving a first segment of a live data stream, the first segment, S 0 , containing first segment data;
applying a forward error correction algorithm the first segment data to produce a corresponding transmit block, T 0 ;
dividing the T 0 block into two or more T 0 sub-blocks, wherein each of the two or more T 0 sub-blocks comprise substantially distinct FEC-encoded first segment data;
transmitting a first of the two or more T 0 sub-blocks to a receiver on a first main sub-channel;
receiving a second segment of the live data stream, the second segment, S 1 , containing second segment data;
applying a forward error correction algorithm to the second segment data to produce a transmit block T 1 ;
dividing the T 1 block into two or more T 1 sub-blocks, wherein each of the two or more T 1 sub-blocks comprises substantially distinct FEC-encoded second segment data;
transmitting substantially concurrently, the second of the two or more T 0 sub-blocks on the first main sub-channel and a first of the two or more T 1 sub-blocks on a second main sub-channel.
2. The method recited in claim 1 , wherein applying a forward error correction algorithm to two or more subsets of the first and second segment data comprises applying a Luby Transform to the first and second segment data.
3. The method recited in claim 1 , wherein applying a forward error correction algorithm to two or more subsets of the first and second segment data comprises applying a Reed-Solomon transform to the first and second segment data.
4. The method recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving the first T 0 sub-block via the first main sub-channel; and
receiving the second T 0 sub-block via the first channel and the first T 1 sub-block via the second channel substantially concurrently.
5. The method recited in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of channels also comprises one or more booster channels each having at least two sub-channels and the receiver has insufficient bandwidth to receive the transmitted blocks on the main and booster channels simultaneously, the method further comprising:
receiving a least one of the two or more T 0 sub-blocks via the booster channel;
recovering the first segment data from the at least one received T 0 sub-block;
thereafter, switching receiver reception to the main channel;
receiving at least one of the two or more T 1 sub-blocks via the second main sub-channel; and
recovering the second segment data from the at least one received T 1 sub-block.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting substantially concurrently, the first T 0 sub-block on a first booster sub-channel, and the first T 1 sub-block on a second booster sub-channel, wherein the second T 0 sub-block, the second T 1 sub-block, the first T 0 sub-block, and the first T 1 sub-block are all transmitted substantially concurrently.
7. The method recited in claim 1 , wherein the T 0 and T 1 blocks are divided into three of more T 0 sub-blocks and three or more T 1 sub-blocks, respectively, and wherein each of the three or more T 0 and T 1 sub-blocks comprise substantially distinct data, the method further comprising:
receiving a third segment of the live data stream, the third segment, S 2 , containing third segment data;
applying a forward error correction algorithm to the third segment data to produce a transmit block, T 2 ;
dividing the T 2 block into three or more T 2 sub-blocks, wherein each of the three or more T 2 sub-blocks comprises substantially distinct third segment data;
transmitting the third of the three or more T 0 sub-blocks on the first main sub-channel after the second T 0 sub-block;
transmitting a second of the three or more T 1 sub-blocks on the second main sub-channel after the first T 1 sub-block; and
transmitting a first of the three or more T 2 sub-blocks to the receiver on a third main sub-channel,
wherein the third T 0 sub-block, the second T 1 sub-block, and the first T 2 sub-block are all transmitted substantially concurrently.
8. The method recited in claim 7 , wherein the plurality of channels also comprises one or more booster channels each having at least two sub-channels, the method further comprising:
transmitting, on a first booster sub-channel, the first of the three of more T 2 sub-blocks after the first T 1 block;
transmitting, on a second booster sub-channel, the first T 1 sub-block after the first T 0 sub-block; and
transmitting, on a third booster sub-channel, the second T 1 sub-block after the second T 0 sub-block.
9. The method recited in claim 7 , wherein the plurality of channels also comprises one or more booster channels each having at least two sub-channels and the receiver has insufficient bandwidth to receive the transmitted blocks on the main and booster channels simultaneously, the method further comprising:
receiving a least one of the two or more T 0 sub-blocks via the booster channel;
recovering the first segment data from the at least one received T 0 sub-block;
thereafter, switching receiver reception to the main channel;
receiving at least one of the three or more T 1 sub-blocks via the second main sub-channel;
recovering the second segment data from the at least one received T 1 sub-block;
receiving at least one of the three or more T 2 sub-blocks via the third main sub-channel; and
recovering the third segment data from the at least one received T 2 sub-block.
10. A system operable to communicate the content of a live data stream to a receiver via a plurality of channels, the system comprising:
a receiver operable to receive first and second segments of a live data stream, the first and second segments containing first and second segment data, respectively;
an encoder operable to apply a forward error correction algorithm to the first segment data and to the second segment data to produce a corresponding first transmit block, T 0 , and a second transmit block, T 1 ;
a block partitioner operable to divide each of the first and second transmit blocks T 0 and T 1 into a plurality of sub-blocks; and
a transmitter operable to transmit the T 0 sub-blocks on a first channel and the plurality of T 1 sub-blocks on a second channel;
wherein the receiver is a switchable, single-channel receiver configured to switch reception between a first channel to receive one or more of the T 0 sub-blocks and a second channel to receive one or more of the T 1 sub-blocks.
11. The system recited in claim 10 , wherein the encoder comprises an information additive code generator.
12. The system recited in claim 10 , further comprising a decoder operable to recover the first segment data from the received one or more T 0 data blocks and the second segment.
13. The system recited in claim 12 , wherein the decoder comprises an information additive code decoder.