Method of providing feedback to a media server in a wireless communication system
View Patent ↗The present invention provides a method involving a media server, a wireless network, and at least one media client associated with at least one air interface with the wireless network. The method includes accessing first information indicative of at least one state of the at least one media client. The first information is provided by the at least one media client. The method also includes accessing second information indicative of resources associated with the at least one air interface. The second information is provided by the wireless network. The method further includes providing at least one feedback parameter to the media server. The at least one feedback parameter is formed based on the first and second information.
1. A method, comprising:
accessing, at a signaling proxy, first information indicative of at least one state of at least one media client, wherein the first information is received by the signaling proxy from said at least one media client at a first rate;
accessing, at the signaling proxy, second information indicative of resources associated with at least one air interface, wherein the second information is received by the signaling proxy from a wireless network at a second rate that is at least an order of magnitude higher than the first rate;
providing at least one feedback parameter from the signaling proxy to a media server at a third rate that is higher than the first rate, wherein said at least one feedback parameter is formed based on the first and second information.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein accessing the first information comprises accessing first information indicative of at least one of a packet delivery rate to said at least one media client, a packet loss rate associated with said at least one media client, available buffer space in said at least one media client, and an expected time for buffer overflow or underflow in said at least one media client.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein accessing the first information comprises accessing first information included in at least one of a plurality of control packets provided by said at least one media client at the first rate.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein accessing the second information comprises accessing second information indicative of at least one of a number of users sharing the downlink bandwidth of said at least one air interface associated with said at least one media client and a fraction of bandwidth of said at least one air interface available to each of said at least one media client.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein accessing the second information comprises accessing the second information provided periodically or in response to a trigger.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein accessing the second information in response to the trigger comprises accessing the second information provided in response to at least one of a change in a quality metric associated with said at least one air interface, a signal to interference plus noise ratio falling or rising relative to a threshold, a packet error rate falling or rising relative to a second threshold, or a change in a buffer level.
7. The method of claim 1 , comprising forming, at the signaling proxy, said at least one feedback parameter based on the first and second information.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein forming said at least one feedback parameter comprises forming information indicative of at least one of a maximum rate available to said at least one media client, an amount of data belonging to said at least one media client that is buffered in at least one entity in the wireless network, a number of packets associated with each of said at least one media client that were delivered over at least one previous feedback interval, and contents of at least one control packet provided by said at least one media client.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing said at least one feedback parameter comprises providing a plurality of control packets to the media server at the third rate, the third rate being comparable to the second rate.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second information is received by the signaling proxy from a wireless network at a second rate that is determined based upon a rate of fluctuations in channel quality associated with the air interface.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first rate is approximately one every 3-5 seconds and wherein the second rate is approximately 1 per hundred milliseconds.
12. A method, comprising:
receiving feedback parameters from a signaling proxy at a media server at a first rate, wherein said at least one feedback parameter is formed by the signaling proxy based on first information indicative of at least one state of at least one media client, wherein the first information is received by the signaling proxy from said at least one media client at a second rate, and second information indicative of resources associated with said at least one air interface, wherein the second information is received by the signaling proxy from the wireless network at a third-rate that is at least an order of magnitude higher than the second rate; and
providing, from the media server, at least one packet at a transmission rate determined based on said at least one feedback parameter received from the signaling proxy.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein receiving the feedback parameters formed based on the first information comprises receiving the feedback parameters formed based on first information indicative of at least one of a packet delivery rate to said at least one media client, a packet loss rate associated with said at least one media client, available buffer space in said at least one media client, and an expected time for buffer overflow or underflow in said at least one media client.
14. The method of claim 12 , wherein receiving the feedback parameters formed based on the second information comprises receiving the feedback parameters formed based on second information indicative of at least one of a number of users sharing the downlink bandwidth of said at least one air interface associated with said at least one media client and a fraction of bandwidth of said at least one air interface available to each of said at least one media client.
15. The method of claim 12 , wherein receiving the feedback parameters comprises receiving information indicative of at least one of a maximum rate associated with the wireless network, an amount of data belonging to said at least one media client that is buffered in at least one entity in the wireless network, a number of packets associated with each of said at least one media client that were delivered over at least one previous feedback interval, a time-stamp or sequence number associated with the last packet delivered to said at least one media client, and contents of at least one control packet provided by said at least one media client.
16. The method of claim 12 , wherein receiving the feedback parameters comprises receiving control packets at the media server at the first rate.
17. The method of claim 12 , wherein providing said at least one packet comprises applying rate shaping to at least one variable bit rate data stream in accordance with the determined transmission rate.
18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the second information is received by the signaling proxy from a wireless network at a second rate that is determined based upon a rate of fluctuations in channel quality associated with the air interface.
19. The method of claim 12 , wherein the second rate is approximately one every 3-5 seconds and wherein the third rate is approximately 1 per hundred milliseconds.