System, method, and protocol for transmission of video and audio data
An improved backhaul protocol is provided, as well as computer-implemented systems and methods for autonomously broadcasting video data, audio data, or video and audio data during an event, wherein the broadcasting can be scheduled in advance and from a remote location (e.g., using a web browser), and wherein the video/audio data is streamed to a remote user over a network using the improved backhaul protocol.
1. A system for transmitting data, the system comprising:
a stream originating device;
a media server; and,
a backhaul protocol configured to transmit data between the stream originating device and the media server via a plurality of packets N, wherein each of the packets comprise (i) encrypted data corresponding to a portion of the data and (ii) error correction information, and, wherein the value of N is automatically, dynamically adjusted during transmission based on one or more constraints, wherein the backhaul protocol is further configured to:
determine that a first transmission channel is blocked, wherein the first transmission channel is being used to transmit the plurality of packets N;
open a second transmission channel; and
retransmit the plurality of packets N on the second transmission channel.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the value of N is dynamically adjusted based on one or more latency or overhead constraints experienced during transmission.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the encryption scheme is eBC-x16.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the error correction scheme is a 1-dimensional XOR scheme suitable for recovering one missing packet from a group of N packets.
5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the value of N is dynamically adjusted to correspond to the last packet of a multi-packet frame.
6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the error correction scheme is fBC-X1d.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the stream originating device is situated behind a router, and wherein the media server is situated outside the router.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the router comprises a firewall.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the backhaul protocol facilitates transmission of information for addressing congestion along a backhaul path, said information comprising one or more of:
(a) a number of buffers and bytes sent;
(b) a number of buffers and bytes positively acknowledged (ACKed);
(c) a number of buffers and bytes negatively acknowledged (NACKed);
(d) a number of buffers retransmitted due to negative acknowledgements (NACKs);
(e) a number of buffers retransmitted due to timeout waiting for positive acknowledgement;
(f) a number of buffers and bytes for which positive acknowledgement (ACKs) were never received;
(g) statistics about round-trip time (RTT) used to calculate timeout values;
(h) whether a transport control protocol (TCP) socket is open or closed;
(i) a transmit backlog on the TCP socket;
(j) an amount of actual packet loss reported from a receiver for each channel; and,
(k) the last time actual loss data was received.
10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the backhaul protocol facilitates transmission of information for addressing congestion along a backhaul path, said information comprising at least:
(a) a number of buffers and bytes sent;
(b) a number of buffers and bytes positively acknowledged (ACKed);
(c) a number of buffers and bytes negatively acknowledged (NACKed);
(d) a number of buffers retransmitted due to negative acknowledgements (NACKs);
(e) a number of buffers retransmitted due to timeout waiting for positive acknowledgement;
(f) a number of buffers and bytes for which positive acknowledgement (ACKs) were never received;
(g) statistics about round-trip time (RTT) used to calculate timeout values;
(h) whether a transport control protocol (TCP) socket is open or closed;
(i) a transmit backlog on the TCP socket;
(j) an amount of actual packet loss reported from a receiver for each channel, and,
(k) the last time actual loss data was received.
11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data transmitted between the stream originating device and the media server comprises audio and video data.
12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the backhaul protocol utilizes User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).
13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the backhaul protocol is further configured to retransmit at least one of the plurality of packets N if the backhaul protocol determines that there has been packet loss.
14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the encrypted data is encrypted using an encryption scheme selected based on the one or more constraints.
15. The system of claim 1 wherein the first transmission channel is a UDP channel and the second transmission channel is a TCP channel.
16. A method comprising:
establishing a connection for conveying data between a stream originating device and a media server using a backhaul protocol; and,
transmitting a plurality of packets N, wherein each of the packets comprise (i) encrypted data corresponding to a portion of the data and (ii) error correction information, and, wherein the value of N is automatically, dynamically adjusted during transmission based on one or more constraints,
determining that a first transmission channel is blocked, wherein the first transmission channel is being used to transmit the plurality of packets N;
opening a second transmission channel; and
retransmitting the plurality of packets N on the second transmission channel.
17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the value of N is dynamically adjusted based on one or more latency or overhead constraints experienced during transmission.
18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising: selecting the encryption scheme used to encrypt the encrypted data based on the one or more constraints.
19. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
determining that at least one of the plurality of packets N is lost due to the blocked first transmission channel; and
before retransmitting the plurality of packets N on the second transmission channel, attempting to recover the lost packet using the error correction information.
20. The method of claim 16 , wherein the first transmission channel is a UDP channel and the second transmission channel is a TCP channel.
21. The method of claim 16 , wherein retransmitting the plurality of packets N on the second channel is not performed until positive acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledged (NACK) is received.
22. A system for facilitating data communication, the system comprising:
a first server;
a second server;
a backhaul protocol configured to convey data between the first server and the second server via a plurality of packets N, wherein each of the packets comprise (i) encrypted data corresponding to a portion of the data and (i) error correction information, and, wherein the value of N is automatically, dynamically adjusted based one or more constraints experienced during transmission of data between the first server and the second server, the backhaul protocol is further configured to:
determine that a first transmission channel is blocked, wherein the first transmission channel is being used to transmit the plurality of packets N;
open a second transmission channel; and
retransmit the plurality of packets N on the second transmission channel.
23. The system of claim 22 , wherein the backhaul protocol is further configured to retransmit at least one of the plurality of packets N if the backhaul protocol determines that there has been packet loss.
24. The system of claim 22 , wherein the encrypted data is encrypted using an encryption scheme selected based on the one or more constraints.
25. The system of claim 22 wherein the first transmission channel is a UDP channel and the second transmission channel is a TCP channel.