System and a method for controlling one or more signal sequences characteristics
View Patent ↗The present invention provides controllers, systems and methods that apply techniques for determining signal sequence characteristics that propagate through a sequence of buffers. One of the buffers represents buffering characteristics of a network through which the signal sequence propagates. The signal sequence may include packets of a media stream and the network may include a wireless network.
1. A method for determining at least one signal sequence characteristic of a signal sequence that propagates through at least three cascaded buffers of a packet processing streaming digital video compression network culminating in a digital video player, the method comprising:
providing status information reflecting a status of at least a third buffer and a second buffer of said at least three buffers; and
applying at least one process to determine the at least one signal sequence characteristic, in response to the status information;
wherein the at least one signal sequence characteristic includes a ratio between a first time required by a media streamer to send a sequence of packets and a second time required by a client to receive the sequence.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least three cascaded buffers are a streamer buffer, a network buffer and a player buffer.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising entering of packets into the network buffer before said providing step.
4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising receiving of reports from the player buffer reporting about at least the last packet that arrived at the player buffer.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said reports are Real Time Control Protocol (RTCP) reports.
6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising decoding said packets and playing said packets by the player, such that the available bandwidth is fully exploited, and a stream is delivered with the highest available quality, without losing packets, and without causing the player to stop for re-buffering.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one process is responsive to network policy rules, and wherein the process is updated in response to previously determined characteristics.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein said update is implemented by neural networks.
9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the update is implemented by a state machine.
10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the update is implemented by fuzzy logic.
11. A method for determining multiple signal sequence characteristics of a signal sequence that propagates through at least two cascaded buffers, the method comprising:
providing status information reflecting a status of at least two cascaded buffers; and
applying at least one process to determine multiple characteristics of the signal sequence, in response to the status information;
wherein the at least one signal sequence characteristic includes a ratio between a first time required by a media streamer to send a sequence of packets and a second time required by a client to receive the sequence.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the at least two cascaded buffers are a network buffer and a streamer buffer.
13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the at least two cascaded buffers are a network buffer and a player buffer.
14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the at least two cascaded buffers are a player buffer and a streamer buffer.
15. A method for determining at least one signal sequence characteristic of a signal sequence that propagates through a network towards a target buffer, the method comprising:
receiving status information reflecting a status of at least the target buffer and a network buffer representative of the buffering characteristics of the network; and
applying at least one process to determine, in response to the status information, the at least one signal sequence characteristic;
wherein the at least one signal sequence characteristic includes a ratio between a first time required by a media streamer to send a sequence of packets and a second time required by a client to receive the sequence.
16. A controller for determining at least one signal sequence characteristic of a signal sequence that propagates through at least three cascaded buffers, the controller comprising:
state machine configured to enforce different behavior under different network conditions;
wherein the controller receives status information reflecting a status of at least a third buffer and a second buffer of the at least three cascaded buffers and provides output representative of at least one signal sequence characteristic of the signal sequence; and
wherein the at least one signal sequence characteristic includes a ratio between a first time required by a media streamer to send a sequence of packets and a second time required by a client to receive the sequence.
17. A system for transmitting a signal sequence via an intermediate buffer towards a target buffer, the system comprising:
a status information providing means, for providing status information reflecting a status of at least the target buffer and the intermediate buffer;
a controller, coupled to said status information providing means to determine at least one signal sequence characteristic, in response to the status information; and
a signal sequence provider, for transmitting at least a signal sequence portion in response to the at least one signal sequence characteristic;
wherein the at least one signal sequence characteristic includes a ratio between a first time required by a media streamer to send a sequence of packets and a second time required by a client to receive the sequence.
18. The system of claim 17 , further comprising a network component providing a process that is responsive to network policy rules, wherein the process is updated in response to previously determined characteristics.
19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the update is implemented by neural networks.
20. The system of claim 18 , wherein the update is implemented by a state machine.
21. The system of claim 18 , wherein the update is implemented by fuzzy logic.
22. The system of claim 17 , further comprising a status information providing means, for providing status information reflecting a status of at least the target buffer and the intermediate buffer.
23. The system of claim 16 , wherein said control parameters are parameters such as those available in at least one of RTP, RTSP and 3GPP release 6 extensions.