Method and apparatus for interleaving a data block

1. A method, comprising:

receiving an interleave attribute, wherein the interleave attribute comprises information associated with a priority order and a sequence of one or more data parts of an interleaved multimedia data block, wherein the interleave attribute is signaled using a service description protocol attribute;

receiving the one or more data parts of the interleaved multimedia data block, wherein the interleaving of the multimedia data block is based at least in part on the priority order, the priority order being based on type information associated with the one or more data parts;

determining a first data part of the one or more data parts based on time information associated with the one or more data parts, the received interleave attribute, and data type information of the one or more data parts; and

determining a time instant to start play-out in a schedule for the first data part based on an amount of data received for the interleaved multimedia data block, time information associated with the one or more data parts, and the play-out time information of an earliest data part of a next data block, wherein the play-out time information of an earliest data part of a next data block is determined based in part on a minimum buffer time.

2. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computer processor, cause an apparatus to perform the method of claim 1 .

3. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

memory including computer program code, the memory and the computer program code configured to, working with the processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

receive an interleave attribute, wherein the interleave attribute comprises information associated with a priority order and a sequence of one or more data parts of an interleaved multimedia data block, wherein the interleave attribute is signaled using a service description protocol attribute;

receive the one or more data parts of the interleaved multimedia data block, wherein the interleaving of the multimedia data block is based at least in part on the priority order, the priority order being based on type information associated with the one or more data parts;

determine a first data part of the one or more data parts based on time information associated with the one or more data parts, the received interleave attribute, and data type information of the one or more data parts; and

determine a time instant to start play-out in a schedule for the first data part based on an amount of data received for the interleaved multimedia data block, time information associated with the one or more data parts, and the play-out time information of an earliest data part of a next data block, wherein the play-out time information of an earliest data part of a next data block is determined based in part on a minimum buffer time.

4. An apparatus as in claim 3 , wherein the memory and the computer program code configured to, working with the processor, further cause the apparatus to perform at least one of:

arrange the one or more data parts based on at least one of the time information associated with the one or more data parts and the data type information of the one or more data parts;

play the arranged one or more data parts; and

play the first data part based on the determined time instant to start play-out in the schedule,

wherein playing a data part comprises displaying the data part and/or reproducing the data part.

5. An apparatus as in claim 3 , wherein the interleaved multimedia data block comprises one or more of an audio data part, a video data part, an image data part, a text data part, and an animation data part.

6. An apparatus as in claim 3 , wherein the memory and the computer program code configured to, working with the processor, further cause the apparatus to determine the play-out time duration of the received one or more data parts of the interleaved multimedia data block.

7. An apparatus as in claim 3 , wherein the memory and the computer program code configured to, working with the processor, further cause the apparatus to determine a freeze time period based on difference between time information associated with the next multimedia data block and the time information associated with the one or more data parts.

8. An apparatus as in claim 3 , wherein the data type information of the one or more data parts includes a multimedia type of the one or more data parts.

9. A system comprising

a communication network;

at least one multimedia server; and

at least one communication device,

wherein a multimedia server comprises:

a processor; and

memory including computer program code,

the memory and the computer program code configured to, working with the processor, cause the multimedia server to perform at least the following:

receive a multimedia data block, the multimedia data block including a plurality of data parts;

interleave the plurality of data parts to form an interleaved data block based at least in part on a priority order, the priority order being based on type information associated with the plurality of data parts;

generate an interleave attribute based on information associated with the interleaved data block, wherein the interleave attribute comprises information associated with the priority order;

signal the interleave attribute using a service description protocol attribute; and

transmit the interleaved data block through the communication network to the at least one communication device, and

wherein a communication device comprises:

a processor; and

memory including computer program code,

the memory and the computer program code configured to, working with the processor, cause the communication device to perform at least the following:

receive an interleave attribute, wherein the interleave attribute comprises information associated with a priority order and a sequence of one or more data parts of an interleaved multimedia data block, wherein the interleave attribute is signaled using a service description protocol attribute;

receive the one or more data parts of the interleaved multimedia data block;

determine a first data part of the one or more data parts based on time information associated with the one or more data parts, the received interleave attribute, and data type information of the one or more data parts; and

determine a time instant to start play-out in a schedule for the first data part based on an amount of data received for the interleaved multimedia data block, time information associated with the one or more data parts, and the play-out time information of an earliest data part of a next data block, wherein the play-out time information of an earliest data part of a next data block is determined based in part on a minimum buffer time.