Patent Grant
8396058
This invention relates to the electronics field of remote access and networking. The invention is implemented in numerous different embodiments in integrated circuits, chipsets, printed circuit cards, computers, networks, servers, routers, telephone handsets, base stations, gateways, and PBXs, as well as methods and processes of manufacture and operation of each of the foregoing, and improved packets and packet ensembles.
Communication through the Internet is based on the Internet Protocol (IP). The Internet is a packet-switched network versus the more traditional circuit switched voice network. The routing decision regarding an IP packet's next hop is made on a hop-by-hop basis. The full path followed by a packet is usually unknown to the transmitter, but it can be determined after the fact.
Packet loss over the Internet has been shown to be highly correlated. If packet N is dropped, there is a high probability that packet N+1 will also be dropped. Kostas, Borella, et al. “Real-Time voice over Packet-Switched Networks,” IEEE Network, January/February 1998.
Voice over Packet/Voice over IP (VOP/VOIP) solutions contend with bandwidth, delay jitter, delay, and packet loss issues. Voice codecs provide some form of packet loss-concealment, or packet loss mitigation, by utilizing coding and packetization schemes over a single flow. These schemes employ some combination of buffering and redundancy (forward error correction (FEC), multi-rate encoding, etc.). The redundant portion of the coding is inserted into some other packet in the single flow. Such coding provides an intra/inter packet diversity gain that can help conceal packet loss, delay, and delay jitter.
TCP is a transport layer 4 protocol and IP is a network layer 3 protocol. IP is unreliable in the sense that it does not guarantee that a sent packet will reach its destination. TCP is provided on top of IP to guarantee packet delivery by tagging each packet. Lost or out of order packets are detected and then the source supplies a responsive retransmission of the packet to destination. Because the packet retransmission process takes significant time, TCP may not satisfactorily solve problems in quality transmission of audio, also known as Voice over IP or VOP (Voice over Packet), and video and other media where maximum tolerable packet delay is not high.
UDP is a transport layer 4 protocol that eliminates the overhead of the retransmission mechanism of TCP but does not make a guarantee that every sent packet will be received. The interface to command the use of either UDP or TCP is very similar.
DIFFSERV is a class of service initiative spearheaded by the IETF Internet Engineering Task Force. Class A service will be better than Class B and Class B is better than Class C. IETF has tried to improve QoS (quality of service). QoS categories are mapped by a policy mechanism to the DIFFSERV class of service categories. However, the policies of different subnetworks (domains) of different companies do vary. As a packet traverses the Internet it typically crosses various companies' domains. These companies require and need to track payment for various classes of services, so permission and authentication mechanisms are keyed to the various service policies of the companies.
RSVP is an edge-network protocol which requires that every intermediate router understand RSVP. Over long distances typical of the Internet this condition does not usually pertain. RSVP is utilized in enterprise networks.
In one form of the invention, a process of sending real-time information from a sender computer to a receiver computer coupled to the sender computer by a packet network wherein packets sometimes become lost, includes steps of directing packets containing the real-time information from the sender computer by at least one path in the packet network to the receiver computer, and directing packets containing information dependent on the real-time information from the sender computer by at least one path—diversity path in the packet network to the same receiver computer.
Other forms of the invention encompass other processes, improved packets and packet ensembles, integrated circuits, chipsets, computer add-in cards, information storage articles, systems, computers, gateways, routers, cellular telephone handsets, wireless base stations, appliances, and packet networks, and other forms as claimed.
Packet loss is ameliorated and delay jitter is mitigated in Voice over Packet and/or Voice over Internet Protocol applications in various embodiments by using multiple independent paths for datagram flows. Multiple paths reduce the correlation of packet loss, delay, and delay jitter. Various embodiments avoid some congestion areas by routing through multiple independent paths, thus mitigating some of the packet loss and delay jitter that would be experienced by conventional methods and conventional apparatus using only a single path. Various path-diversity solutions described herein can be used in conjunction with many of the existing techniques that attempt to deal with packet loss and delay jitter. The path-diversity solutions herein provide an additional “gain” due to the less correlated multiple paths. This gain is similar in some ways and different in others from the multipath gain in wireless. Path diversity keeps QoS high. A command or trigger mechanism initiates path diversity in some embodiments.
This document describes embodiments and approaches that introduce path diversity into VOP/VOIP and other media applications. Providing multiple paths between a single source and destination confers a path diversity gain that can be leveraged by codecs. Extensions are discussed that cover class of service (CoS) and quality of service (QoS) on the paths.
Flow Path Diversity: In some inventive embodiments VOP/VOIP applications open multiple (two or more) flows between the same source and the destination. The packets in each flow traverse separate paths from packets in other flows (for at least some of the hops between the source and destination). Having multiple paths reduces the correlation of packet loss, delay, delay jitter, etc. over the Internet and other networks. New codecs can take advantage of the extra gain provided by path diversity while still employing intra/inter packet diversity techniques. For example, one can leverage the work done with path diversity in the wireless arena.
How To Achieve Flow Diversity: Currently there is little work done in path selection for flows. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has worked on a physical topology management information base (MIB) for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). The Internet does not support path selection very well either. IP has the concept of source routing, but this feature is limited and purposely not supported in many instances due to perceived risks to network security.
A few mechanisms that may be used by herein improved processes to achieve flow diversity are nonexhaustively listed next.
Resource Reservation Setup Protocol (RSVP). Use some protocol to reserve resources through multiple paths. How these paths are discovered is discussed later herein. Since RSVP guarantees quality of service already, it is not a primary locus, though it is a possible one, for application of the path diversity approach proposed here. Path diversity as proposed is not incompatible with RSVP. Path diversity with any protocol can be implemented as contemplated herein even when QoS is high so that the path diversity is already available when QoS declines or is low. In other embodiments path diversity is initiated when QoS has declined below a particular level.
Source Routing is currently supported but limited due to hop count and security issues. How paths are discovered is discussed later herein.
Fixed intermediate gateway. Auxiliary flows in this approach go through fixed intermediate hosts that are designed to forward the paths to the destination. A large physical separation distance of the intermediate host from the final destination host advantageously provides path diversity using the standard Internet routing procedures.
Multiple backbones. Large Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are typically connected to redundant links connected to different network backbones. These links and physical interfaces exhibit path diversity which can be advantageously put to use as described herein.
Thus, an important conception herein proposes to take advantage of path diversity, and path diversity may be achieved by a variety of embodiments.
Extensions: When multiple classes of service are available, embodiments can be optimized for quality, price, etc. A class of service (COS) architecture (e.g., DIFFSERV) offers multiple paths where each employs a different class of service. A quality of service (QOS) architecture (e.g., RSVP or ATM, Asynchronous Transfer Mode), offers multiple paths where each employs a different guaranteed quality of service. Embodiments of the invention can be used to make DIFFSERV work better, wherein only classes of service exist, to provide a satisfactory QoS by permitting the destination to reconstruct lost packets, especially in VoIP and VOP.
In wireless, diversity of reception at multiple antennas, or by bouncing off multiple reflecting objects thereby creating multiple paths, at an analog level provides diversity gain. In contrast, the discussion herein importantly focuses on digital network path diversity in packet networks. At the transport layer level of a packet network, the path which will be taken is unknown or less certainly known, and diversity as contemplated herein is a diversity of digital paths for digital packets via diverse nodes or servers. A cell phone embodiment can, however, be arranged to access the Internet or other large packet network connected to the cell phone base station, wherein the cell phone communicates to its destination by multiple digital paths in the packet network. A type of cell phone base station is improved to initiate the packet network path diversity instead of the cell phone.
For an embodiment to be useful, it need not be adjacent to a wire-line network and indeed can be communicating over the Internet or other large network with intermediate wireless links. The packets may encounter satellite, microwave, cable, optic fiber, cellular, and numerous other types of network communications links. In some embodiments the diversity occurs anywhere at any point within the wire-line network and is not restricted to the endpoints.
In another embodiment a personal computer (PC) 103 (
Going further in a spatial dimension, the embodiments suitably reside in a PC, a cell phone, a base station, in a server in the Internet backbone and elsewhere. Path diversity thus establishes a way to communicate duplicated or otherwise dependent packets through the Internet “cloud” by multiple paths or routes.
Edge devices outside the cloud or routers inside the cloud suitably implement the improvement of path diversity. The multiple paths between the devices yield a communications improvement, regarded as a “gain,” between the edge devices. If there is a congested link and the path diversity covers or steers packets around it, then the introduction of path diversity will be beneficial.
The improvement advantageously can be implemented at multiple points at the edge and within the network without interfering with itself, bearing in mind that path diversity does increase the amount of data that is being sent over the network at a given rate. In a worst case the increased amount of data might add to network congestion, and thus exacerbate the congestion problem which the path diversity improvement is intended to ameliorate. Thus, the skilled worker suitably utilizes embodiments and transport network protocols which do not exacerbate network loading if this turns out to be an issue.
Transmitting in time with time-diversity involves sending data and then sending it again, except that VoIP is sensitive to the latency or delay. Interleavers are also used to obtain a QoS improvement not by time diversity but by interleaving (or shuffling) coded speech frames over a number of packets. Advantageously and by contrast, packet network path diversity herein spreads out space instead of time by using multiple paths and reduces and minimizes the latency problem.
Some of the method and apparatus embodiments guarantee or at least make probable that the distinct streams of packets 111 and their dependent packets 113 will traverse different routes 119 and 117 through the network 100 from source 103 to destination 105. Then a further aspect of method and apparatus at the destination 105 determines whether a given packet is lost and then uses the information in a corresponding dependent packet to reconstruct the lost packet or to construct a semblance of the lost packet depending on an estimate of the information that was lost.
A balance, or optimization, is involved in operation. If temporal-diversity packets are too far apart in time, they are too far apart for audio VoIP purposes. If the packets are too close in time the temporally-diverse packets may take the same physical route from source to destination. Heretofore there has been no mechanism for finding two different paths ahead of time for a packet and at least one dependent packet, and then constraining them to take the two different paths respectively, or at least constrain them to pass through two different specified routers A and B on their way to the destination.
By contrast with wireless path diversity, the Internet is a set of digital packet “antennas” that are being issued by a genie, and some process is needed to assure that they will be far enough apart to achieve diversity gain.
Further in
A similar description applies to various components associated with computer 105 of
Further in
Base stations 183 and 187 are coupled to a public switched telephone network PSTN 185, which in turn is coupled to the packet network 100. Also, base stations 183 and 187 are respectively coupled to packet network 100 via gateways 191 and 193. In the cell served by base station 187, a cell phone 189 typifies numerous cell phones active in a cell service area of that base station 187.
A private branch exchange PBX 201 couples telephones 203 and 205 to PSTN 185. Suitably, PBX 201 is improved for path diversity communications as described herein. Another PBX 211 couples IP phones 213 and 215 to a node of packet network 100 as illustrated.
Bandwidth is not a big concern for most Internet users, regardless of the significance of that metric for network planners and administrators. Rather indeed, data will represent the vast majority, perhaps 90%, of the traffic on the Internet. Thus, voice will be a sliver of the traffic and increasing the bandwidth demanded by voice by implementing path diversity according to various embodiments is not believed to be a major concern.
Secondly, various embodiments become increasingly attractive because of the development of ever more sophisticated speech coders which provide high compression, good voice quality, and low bit rates which conserve network resources that are made ever more available.
But delay and delay jitter are problems in networks such as the Internet and other packet networks, which problems can be solved by using a minor amount of packet network resources according to path diversity embodiments herein.
When the Internet backbone is loaded, and the future addition of more VoIP calls is added to that load, the QoS for many of those VoIP calls may become degraded below acceptability level 317 for many users. Accordingly, addition of path diversity according to various embodiments of apparatus and methods herein, is likely to be not merely desirable but necessary for VoIP, VoP and media over packet to be acceptable for those users experiencing congestion. And since VoIP is a sliver of the Internet load, rescuing QoS for a far larger fraction of VoIP calls than the incremental fraction of bandwidth proposed to be added herein easily justifies transmitting path diverse dependent VoIP/VoP/media packets.
Note that the media over packet signal is spread out over a spatial dimension, and some embodiments dynamically cause the signal to transmitted with only as much diversity as is needed at any given time to get the QoS job done, see incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 6,757,256.
In a first example, duplicate data streams are programmed or constrained to flow over two different paths. In a routing decision at the source 103, a process embodiment identifies and transmits two different streams. A proxy application runs on a server A called a forwarder. Respective forwarders A and B at the intermediate nodes 131 and 133 forward the two different streams to the destination 105. Thus, source 103 sends a first data stream to forwarder A at node 131, and forwarder A is programmed to forward the first data stream on to destination 105. Source 103 also or concurrently sends a second data stream having dependent packets, dependent relative to packets in the first data stream, to forwarder B at node 133, and forwarder B is programmed to forward the second data stream on to the same destination 105.
The software in the first PC at source 103 opens two different Internet Protocol streams to the forwarders A and B and sends to forwarders A and B the final destination identification. Thus, software of an inventive embodiment is located on the forwarders. Skilled workers or companies working to encourage the proliferation of VoIP/VoP/media over packet can also set up and publicize dedicated forwarder servers endowed with the proxy forwarding software.
A source route embodiment is discussed next which employs no additional proxy forwarding software at the servers at intermediate nodes 133 and 135. Since some firewalls do not permit source-routing, this embodiment is well suited to those home, small-office, home-office, and small-business environments having no firewall. Also, even firewalls can be programmed to let low risk VoIP calls having source-routed datagrams through. Improved software or add-in cards useable out of the box can be implemented for PCs or sold in new PCs. The skilled worker inquires and obtains from Internet Service Providers certain source routing information identifying their servers to incorporate into and thereby improve the PC software as contemplated in this second embodiment. This source routing information specifies various intermediate nodes to use as the path diversity intermediate nodes to which the PC in which the software is installed can send VoIP dependent streams of packets. The skilled worker(s) or companies working to encourage the proliferation of VoIP can also set up the intermediate nodes and publicize the source routing information for these servers. Also, the skilled worker suitably additionally sets up one or more web sites having the forwarding or source routing information. The improved PC software in the set up process accesses the web site(s) and downloads the forwarding or source routing information of the forwarders or path diversity intermediate nodes. A company suitably differentiates itself by providing at least some servers which permit source routing by not being conventionally deliberately programmed to block source routing.
An application level modification procedure is described next for modifying conventional VoIP application software (including a speech codec) to provide a VoIP application embodiment. The VoIP application embodiment of
Sending Software
In
Provide commands in the speech codec 421 software to produce compression frames and dependent compression data for packetizing by a packetize block 431. This is an example of providing some statistical dependency either as simple replication (repetition coding) of packets, moderate redundancy, all the way to very sophisticated statistical redundancy.
Two or more mutually-dependent packets can be generated such that one packet has the full information that is intended to be transmitted, and one or more additional packets have less than or equal to that full information in the first packet. Alternatively, the packets are suitably generated such that none of the packets have the full information intended for reception, and instead each of the packets has less than that full information, and the packets which are received (even if some be lost) then have their information combined in the decoder to obtain what information is available in them collectively. If only one packet reaches the destination out of the mutually dependent packets sent, then the partial information in that packet is decoded by a decoder 741 of
Other arrangements wherein information is convolved or overlapped over several packets are contemplated. Advantageously, many inventive embodiments that select and mix-and-match various coding and decoding techniques are contemplated to fulfill the needs of particular system economics, class of service CoS, quality of service QoS, speed, bandwidth, cost, power consumption and other variables influencing particular systems designed by the skilled worker.
Speech coder 421 supplies packets of coded compressed speech which interestingly contain some critical bits which are essential to receive and other less critical bits the non-reception of which degrades the decoded result more gracefully. In one path diversity coding embodiment, the critical bits are indeed exactly replicated, or copied, and sent in two or more packets along diverse paths. In another path diversity embodiment the dependent packets are sent using high compression encoding in the one or more additional packets of the set. In this way, various kinds of coding are advantageously contemplated, including joint coding, so that path diversity packets can be sent in a manner which significantly less-than-doubles the network loading of the VoIP or VoP transmission.
Improved software code in interface 441 (see
In one example, the source 103 has improved software of
Among various process alternatives are 1) for coder 421 generation: generate packets consecutively, or instead generate packets in parallel concurrently or substantially simultaneously; 2) interface 441: alternate or commutate the packets to supply them to multiple connection software objects A, B staggered in time, or instead supply the dependent packets concurrently to the multiple connection software objects; 3) connection software objects A, B: multiple modules, or instead a single module that takes consecutive packets and is configured to route to A, then route to B, then route to A, then route to B, etc.
A Packet Transmission Table representation shows still further alternatives.
Table Notes:
The table entries illustrate transmission at substantially corresponding times for corresponding sequence positions of numerals.
The entry “x” means no transmission relevant to the particular 600-series in a particular time interval in the order tabulated.
A primed numeral signifies a packet with dependent data having dependent information content and less information content than a packet signified by the same numeral but unprimed. A multiply-primed numeral is the same, but implies nothing about the relative amount of information compared with another primed numeral having more or fewer primes on it.
The entry N/A means not applicable, or no transmission relevant to the particular 600-series in a particular path diversity channel.
Thus in Packet Transmission Table embodiment 1, packet 601 is put on, or connected to, and sent via path A and path B. Next, the process and apparatus take packet 603 and connect it to and send it via path A and path B, and so on. This process embodiment simply doubles the bandwidth utilized, compared to sending the packets via one path only. This repetition coding embodiment is advantageously uncomplicated, while more sophisticated coding embodiments (as in rows 2 and 3) add more complexity and advantageously provide less bandwidth or greater bandwidth efficiency.
Note in embodiment 4 that all three packets in a set like 601′, 601″, 601′″ can be combined in pairs or all three to provide more information than any one of the packets separately represents.
Note in embodiments 7 and 8 that packet 603′ is sent before packet 603. Thus, some embodiments send all packets that are dependent on each other at the same time onto diverse paths. Other embodiments send one packet that has the most information first and other packets dependent on the one packet are sent somewhat later in time over diverse paths. Still other embodiments send one or more packets that have relatively little information first, and then one or more packets that have more information or all the information are generated, issued, or sent somewhat later in time over diverse paths.
Control Software 451 selects from a list, table, or algorithm what proxy connections, channels or paths are to be opened over the network (two or more paths). The operating system, such as Windows, Linux, Unix or any other suitable operating system of which many such currently exist or will be in the future be developed, includes a network stack 461 which is a software module that establishes a process for opening each channel or path over which to send communications. The network stack, one common form of which is an Internet Protocol (IP) software stack, comes with the widely commercially available Windows operating system for example, and also in computers that are described as Internet-enabled. Then any application can use that stack. Applications such as Netscape, Internet Explorer, Mail, and others that communicate to the Internet use such an interface. Any application that sends and receives packets or otherwise communicates via Internet Protocol or TCP/IP uses this type of stack and unimproved interface to open a channel.
The network stack 461 is commanded herein to open multiple network connections automatically by some of the processes contemplated herein. Network stack software is capable of opening more than one path provided it is commanded to do so, and various embodiments of process, method and apparatus described herein recognize the advantages of doing so and do contemplate commands to the network stack to open path-diversity connections to the network.
The skilled worker as a VoIP designer specifies routes such as by identifying known intermediate machines A and B and hard-coding their diverse routing information into the VoIP application software to improve it. Or a user interface is added to improve conventional VoIP application software to let the user select the routes at run-time, say by a set up or configuration program and graphical user interface 481 associated with it.
Still further, in
A microphone 161.1 of the PC (or 181.4 of a handset) produces an analog electrical speech waveform from a speaker's voice, for instance which is digitized by analog-to-digital converter A/D. Speech coder 421 compresses the digitized speech waveform down to a very low bit rate, which is conveyed to the packet network path diversity stack in blocks 441, 461 which has open at least two routes A, B, etc. over the network 100. The VoIP application control 451 has opened the routes. The interface 441 has commanded the IP software stack to open a connection to intermediate machine A and has commanded the IP software stack to open a connection to intermediate machine B (and possibly also C, D, etc.). The IP software stack 461 then returns a software object that represents the connection to intermediate machine A and another software object that represents the connection to intermediate machine B, etc.
The speech coder 421 and packetizer 431 send packets to the interface 441, and the interface 441 sends the data as the packets or otherwise to the respective software object corresponding to connection to the intermediate machine A or B (or C, etc) to which the data is being directed by the interface 441.
In the simple example of the repetition coding (duplicated packets) embodiment, the packet 601 from the speech coder is sent to both software object A and software object B, and the next packet 603 from the speech coder is sent to both software object A and the software object B, etc. Once a connection is open, in this parlance, all arrangements are in place to send the packets generated by the voice coder 421 at the source 103 to the forwarding server 131, 133, etc. identified by the routing information.
In addition to having two connections open by operation of the network stack, and having a speech coder application 421 running, one form of inventive improvement provides more. The improvement links, by means of interface software 441, the software objects A and B provided by the network stack 461, with the speech coder 421 so that mutually-dependent packets 111 and 113 from the speech coder 421 are delivered to the software objects A and B to get sent along the diverse paths 117 and 119. And in an embodiment of repetition coding, the packet 601 from the packetizer 431 is sent to software object A, and the interface 441 process itself copies packet 601 and sends copied packet 601 to software object B.
Thus, one way improves hitherto available VoIP application software to add 1) a few lines of code to command the network stack 461 to open two or more software objects A, B, etc. to connect to diverse paths 117 and 119 in the network 100, and 2) software code causing the computer 103 to copy the compressed speech data which the speech coder 421 produces and send that copied data to said two or more software objects A, B, etc. representing path-wise diverse routes 117, 119 through the network 100. In other words, hitherto available VoIP application software commands the network stack to open one connection to the destination and sends speech coder data to that connection. The improvement of this one embodiment, for one example, copies the speech coder 421 data and sends it at least one more time digitally to the same destination over at least one other path-wise diverse packet network connection.
The skilled worker writes a piece of application software 411 as in
Once written by the skilled worker, of an ISV (independent software vendor) for example, the computer manufacturer, or end-user as the case may be, installs the ISV software on the Windows computer.
Reception Software
In
In one embodiment of the receiving software, objects 721 and 723 for channels A and B respectively are coupled to a software module 731 called “feeder software” herein, which in turn depacketizes and couples received compressed speech data to a decoder 741 that passes decoded speech to a digital to analog converter DAC-and-amplifier 743 to headphones or a loudspeaker 162.i. Decoder 741 is a decoder which operates according to a process that recovers the speech or other audio information that was compressed according to the complementary process utilized in the coder 421 of
Feeder software 731 operates according to any of a variety of alternative embodiments complementary to whichever process was implemented in coder 421, packetizer 431 and interface 441 of
First Feeder Embodiment: Repetition coded packets. Feeder software 731 establishes buffers for packets arriving from channels A and B and checks their tags, issuing them in tag-order to decoder 741. If a next packet tag to be issued is found with a packet in the channel A buffer whether or not it is in the channel B buffer, then the packet in the channel A buffer is issued to the decoder 741. If a next packet tag to be issued is found with a packet in the channel B buffer but not the channel A buffer, then the packet in the channel B buffer is issued to the decoder 741. If the packet is found in neither channel buffer, then a lost packet signal is issued to the decoder, which handles the lost packet event according to the algorithm native to the decoder. Such algorithm provides silence, or white noise, extrapolation of previous packets, interpolation of previous and succeeding packets on hand, or other suitable signal.
Second Feeder Embodiment: Dependent packets. Source 103 communicates to Destination 105 the type of mode of transmission from the Packet Transmission Table that is to be used. Feeder software 731 establishes buffers for packets arriving from channels A and B, and so on, and checks their tags, issuing them in tag-order to decoder 741. If a next packet tag to be issued is found with an “unprimed” packet (see Packet Transmission Table discussion) in the channel A buffer and a “primed” packet in the channel B buffer, then the unprimed packet in the channel A buffer is issued to the decoder 741. Conversely, if the unprimed packet is in B buffer, and a primed packet is in A buffer, then the unprimed packet in the B buffer is issued to decoder 741. If a next packet tag to be issued is found with a packet in one channel buffer but not another channel buffer, then the packet that is present in the channel buffer where it lies, is issued to the decoder 741. If no packet having the tag is found in any channel buffer, then a lost packet signal is issued to the decoder, which handles the lost packet event according to the algorithm native to the decoder. If in the Packet Transmission Table, both packets are primed in both of the channel buffers, then both packets are issued to the decoder 741, which puts the information in both packets together according to the algorithm native to the decoder. If more than two channels are used, then channel C, D, E . . . buffer(s) to correspond to the respective additional channels are provided, and feeder software operates with the primed and unprimed packets to analogously supply as much information to the decoder 741 as possible.
A transmission embodiment like 411 and reception embodiment like 711 are advantageously provided together as a combined software application in the same computer 103 or at the same network node. In this way, two-way VOP, VOIP, and media over packet communications are readily established when the combined software application 411, 711 is repeatedly installed in two or more computers or nodes of the network. Also, networks of three or more computers advantageously support improved distribution of media (as in
Dynamic Use of Statistics
Understanding the statistics of the network behavior is useful, such as the correlation of packet delay behavior in different paths relative to each other. In
A first embodiment identifies two physical machines 131 and 133 through which dependent packets from source node 103 are made to pass on their way through network 100 to destination node 105. Physical machines 131 and 133 are located diversely in the network 100 so that a communications improvement will occur. Ordinarily, substantial geographical separation of machines 131 and 133 is sufficient to establish diversity of network location and to guarantee diversity of paths for this purpose.
A physical router such as 131 or 133, or server 151, or otherwise, monitors various paths through the system and sends out test packets to certain points in the network and measures statistics on QoS and QoS correlation for various paths through the network. When it finds the different places it tabulates their locations that provide acceptable decorrelation between the signals or packets. Unlike a wireless system which might provide a channel model for that system, the physical router or routers in the network build up lists of nodes that provide acceptable decorrelation for signals originating at a given source 103 and destined for a given destination 105.
The source node 103 itself alternatively tests the network by sending test packets and gathers QoS data, QoS median/average, and QoS correlation statistics on various intermediate nodes to determine where these nodes appear on a decorrelation plot. For example, a decorrelation plot for nodes 131 and 133 plots respective points for each of many sets of test packets. The coordinates of any one point on the decorrelation plot are (QoS.sub.A, QoS.sub.B) where QOS.sub.A is a value of QoS of transmissions through node 131 and QoS.sub.B is a value of QoS of transmissions through node 133. Correlation r is computed from these QoS pairs according to any standard statistical correlation calculation formula.
Thus, the source 103 builds up a list of intermediate nodes and their correlations and selects particular intermediate nodes like 131, 133 from the list and through which packets and dependent packets are respectively sent on their way to destination 105. The selection method of source 103 or of a router along the way scans the list of intermediate nodes wherein the list includes statistical information for each intermediate node gathered from the earlier sending of test packets from source 103. The scanning method determines one subset or plural subsets of listed nodes wherein the statistical information for the subset demonstrates independent random times of arrival. For example, a criterion of selection is suitably that the statistical correlation r between two intermediate nodes QoS's be less than a predetermined amount. The predetermined amount is suitably equal to 0.5, or even more preferably r=0.3 or less.
The intermediate nodes 131 and 133 thereby constrain the dependent packets respectively passing through the different intermediate nodes to take paths which exhibit sufficient path diversity to improve the QoS and decrease packet loss ratio compared to conventional transmission. It is possible to send packets across a continent or further to obtain path diversity between geographically close locations of a source 103 and destination 105, but such extreme measure is ordinarily not necessary when they can be sent to closer intermediate nodes that also provide suitable path diversity.
Turning again to
In one type of base station networking embodiment, the base stations 183 and 187 of
Cell phones 181 and 189 also use CDP cellular digital packet data to send datagrams over packet network 100. They are further improved as disclosed herein to send VoIP or VOP datagrams at a sufficient data rate and with packet network path diversity for high QoS. The cell phone constitutes a physical layer interface (PHY) which is complemented by higher layer software as
In the cell phone, the software of
The cell phones 181 and 189 are suitably provided with positioning software such as GPS (global positioning software), Snaptrack™ or the like. The cell phones have a wearable mobile enclosure with a belt-clip 181.9 and 189.9, and their circuitry is suitably mounted in an automotive enclosure such as in the Auto shown in
The software process blocks of
In systems where a cell phone 189 communicates voice wirelessly to its base station 187, the base station recovers the voice via a decoder 491 of
In a further network and system infrastructure embodiment, a VoIP Solution Provider improves gateways 191 and 193 with the software of
In
Further in
In
In view of the dynamic and unpredictable nature of the networks, another type of embodiment provides a very smart, adaptive software module that does multiple path operations according to a process that 1) picks paths to suit the kind of coding or compression it has, or coded or compressed to suit the paths it sees and 2) does various path and QoS statistics measurements discussed in connection with
In
Process Table 1 summarizes and further describes a sequence of steps 851, 853, 855, 857, 859 to set up a packet network path diversity connection. The step numerals are in the Process Table 1 and not in the drawings.
In
When host 811 accesses the proxy list server 815 with a request for proxy computers, then proxy list server 815 executes step 853 and then in a step 855 returns a list of proxy computers or proxy machines for use in establishing communications between host 811 and host 817.
In a step 857, Host 811 using the list identifying proxy A and proxy B, now opens an actual path diversity connection to its requested destination Host 817 through both proxy A and proxy B. In other words, two (or more) connections are open at once or concurrently through respective proxies for media-over-packet communications packets and their dependent packets. As part of opening the two (or more) connections, proxy A and proxy B get enough information, through the signaling protocol used by Host 811 to open each connection, in order for proxy A and proxy B to each thereupon open their own respective connections to Host 817. The signaling protocol of HTTP for the world wide web is suitable and does not require further explanation of its inner details here.
Magnified portion 819 of
In
The port is like a mailbox and no processing by proxy A due to a Host 811 attempt to make a connection is required while proxy A is awaiting the connection because packets that come over the network do not get delivered to a port of proxy A unless they are addressed to that port. And, if a packet does not get put into the particular mailbox (port), no processing is needed in that mailbox. So, traffic is going through the proxy all the time but unless the traffic is destined for a particular port of the proxy, the traffic never arrives at the port.
Host 811 can be browsing the Web at the same time as it is sending e-mail, and at the same time as it is sending voice over IP. Thus, several application programs running on Host 811 can use one connection. When host 811 sends a transmission to proxy A and to proxy B, host 811 addresses a particular port on proxy A and another particular port on proxy B whose existence as a port signifies that it is accepting VoIP packets and will act as a proxy to forward the VoIP packets on. If there is no proxy on a given machine, there will be no processing at the particular port to receive the packet and no handshake or processing to respond and forward the packet on to the destination Host 817. A proxy may be forwarding hundreds of VoIP calls, e-mails, and web accesses, but each one of these communications is referred to in a step 913 its own particular port of the proxy after the first access to the general-availability port of the machine and as soon as a connection is established whereupon that data packets are then sent over the connection.
Once the handshake protocol is accomplished Host 811 and the particular application, e.g., VoIP, on host 811 is the only entity that Proxy A appears to be talking to from Host 811 application perspective, and likewise for Proxy B. Similar remarks apply to the connection between Proxy A and Host 817 and the connection between Proxy B and Host 817. Thus, even if Hosts 811 and 817 have other application programs (apps) using the packet network, and indeed other VoIP calls going, each particular call in this example is set up with the particularity and path diversity service just described via proxies A and B.
When a packet arrives addressed to a port of proxy A, then a handshake is initiated according to the protocol type, such as HTTP, NTP, Domain Name Resolution, Real Audio, Real Video, VoIP, etc. H.323 (an ITU-T recommendation) and SIP (an IETF standard), have a signaling protocol for VoIP. Part of the protocol in a step 913 arranges operations of Host 811 and Proxy A and Proxy B to move communications for this connection from the original port to a particular unused port that the proxy dedicates to the connection with a particular application program running on Host 811.
In a next step 915, the proxies A and B each determine the identification information for the final destination Host 817. In one example method, Host 811 itself sends data in an early packet to each proxy A and B, the data including the address or other identification information for the final destination Host 817.
Then in a step 917, proxy A and proxy B each open a respective connection to the destination Host 817. Then in a step 919 of
A decision step 921 determines whether the connection is to be continued or closed. If continued, then operations loop to step 919 to continue forwarding packets back and forth between hosts 811 and 817. The process of
If the decision in a given proxy A or B in step 921 is to close the connection, say because of disconnection information received from either host 811 or 817, then operations then proceed in that proxy to a step 923. In step 923, proxy gracefully closes connection AB to source host 811 and connection BC to destination host 817, whereupon operations return to other processes unrelated to the subject at hand.
The
Advantageously, the operations described above for this particular embodiment are free of source routing which for some purposes is undesirable. In source routing, every packet from source Host 811 would have routing information, intermediate node addresses for the network hops as well as final destination 817 address, all put in the packet header, thereby directing the path of the packet through the network. Alternatively, the source Host 811 advantageously addresses its connection request packet to proxy A in the header, but only in the payload (non-header) portion of the packet does Host 811 include the address of the final destination 817. Then it is up to the proxy A to itself make the connection from proxy A to final destination host 817.
Also, by contrast, the source Host 811 also addresses a second connection request packet to proxy B and in the payload (non-header) portion of that second request packet Host 811 also includes the address of the final destination 817. Then, again, it is up to proxy B to itself make the connection from proxy B to final destination host 817. As a result of these operations, at least two path diversity connections are now set up, ready for real-time data over packet and for dependent packets to be communicated ultimately to final destination host 817 with improved QoS without necessarily using source routing.
Discussion now returns to
In a second communication process embodiment, Host 811 sends a request to proxy list server 815 identifying itself, identifying Host 817, identifying the number M (two or more) of proxies and requesting a path diversity proxy list X2. Proxy list server 815 sends back the proxy list X2 which not only has been sifted for acceptable proxies, but also has been sifted based on current network information about their congestion level maintained by proxy list server 815. Further, list X2 lists pairs such that the total number of distinct proxies in the pairs is exactly number M or close to number M. Then Host 811 selects a set of pairs of proxies from the list X2 according to the number M (two or more) of proxies desired for path diversity with little or no local list processing.
The subject of communication processes is further developed later hereinbelow in connection with
By contrast with a firewall with a proxy, the processes just described in
A firewall recognizes and serves and is proxy for a protocol for a certain subset of machines out of the whole set of machines in the world. The proxy servers A and B are characterized in that they are chosen to virtually guarantee path diversity of communications.
A proxy is a program that runs on a machine. Advantageously, each of the proxy programs proposed here 1) monitor a specific general-access port of a packet network machine for voice over IP path diversity, 2) only then according to a special protocol which has a handshake that expects to receive the destination, that then opens the connection and then starts to forward VoIP packets between source and destination. This behavior has a rough analogy to a Telnet proxy or an FTP proxy; however, the protocol they use does not respond to a VoIP call request for proxy service. Instead, the protocol they use only gives service if Telnet or FTP protocol packets are accessing them, not VoIP packets.
The router machine here assigns a particular fixed address number, e.g. 100, to be the port address part of the router address that is a general-access port for only-VoIP accesses by host 811. Thus the assigned address number is the number of the port where VoIP applications accesses go, or the port that is dedicated for general-access by only VoIP applications. This particular port address is monitored by a router proxy program embodiment herein, see
So if a VoIP application addresses that VoIP port, it communicates according to the VoIP protocol which the proxy program is programmed to accept. A protocol is a sequence of steps.
In Mail protocol, by contrast, as soon as a connection is opened, the first thing a machine sends back is its machine identifier, its mail version, and “hello” bits. Thus, if a non-VoIP application like Mail tries to address that same VoIP port, the non-VoIP application communicates otherwise than according to the VoIP protocol embodiment for proxy here, speaking a different language as it were. This non-VoIP communication is rejected as error by the VoIP proxy program at step 911 and is not forwarded.
Error is detected because, for example, a particular VoIP protocol embodiment requests a connection to open to an identified machine at an identified port, and then is done with its request, after this quite brief request activity.
Discussion briefly considers proxy selection next.
A few observations about path diversity lead to some rules of thumb in proxy selection at server 815. For example, suppose the source Host 811 and the destination 817 are in the same city, or otherwise very close to each other. Then using two different proxy servers in the same city may not provide much path diversity. A prestored list of region locations and proxy-to-proxy distances is provided in the list server memory bank as described more fully in connection with
Another approach determines network information dynamically, and a server continually sends out packets through the network and determines hop counts as described in more detail in connection with
VOP/VOIP Broadcasting and Multicasting
In
Next, as shown by a dotted line 1135, router node 1121 is improved to add destination 1131 to its multicast group. In a process and system embodiment here, in other words, destination 1131 is improved as in
Thus, as just described, a remarkable process embodiment of
The reader should beware that the term “multicast” may have quite a specific meaning to the person of ordinary skill, so that this improvement in
SRC 1111 multicasts a stream to a group of proxy servers and opens up 2 (or more) information-related, or dependent streams to those proxy servers. The proxy servers open up multicast connections to the destinations, e.g. 1131. This process confers the advantages not only of multicast because of multicast to the proxy servers and multicast back down to the destinations. In essence two different streams are being multicast, but they are going through the proxy servers which confers path diversity, as well. Multicast is much less burdensome on the network than broadcast, and the introduction of path diversity herein increases QoS.
In a different embodiment related to
In a third multicast-related embodiment, SRC 1111 multicasts one communication stream to proxy A and proxy B, which constitute in themselves two multicast destinations for SRC 1111. Here, SRC 1111 is in its connection opening packet(s) asks Proxy A and Proxy B to themselves to now act as multicast sources themselves. In other words, SRC 1111 has path diversity in mind and is executing a process embodiment for purposes herein. Proxy A then as a multicast source in its own right, multicasts the same communication stream to the multicast destinations. Proxy B as a multicast source in its own right, too, concurrently multicasts the same communication stream to the multicast destinations. Additional proxies C, D, etc., can be added at the request of SRC 1111, if desired.
Note that in the broadcast and multicast-related embodiments the selection of proxies or routers to establish the path diversity is suitably accomplished according to any of the selection process embodiments disclosed elsewhere herein, such as in connection with
Turning to
In
Placed where proxy software can swiftly test them are Dependency Identification Bits 1450,1460 and Path Diversity 1470,1480 Identification Bits. Their purpose is to inhibit unintended proliferation of unnecessary path diversity and temporal diversity additions when these have already been introduced elsewhere in the network, see
In another storage disk 1511 embodiment the bits of information represent processor instructions for some or all of
In a further storage disk 1511 embodiment, the bits of information represent processor instructions for the process of
In
In
Some embodiments add memory and a control program for prestoring and playing coded speech to augment or even replace the speech codec in some appliances and talking toys that speak for themselves in normal operation or during maintenance. MCU 1731 has a VoIP control 1731 and a TCP/UDP/IP packet network protocol stack 1733 which together establish two or more software objects respectively representing diverse network connections, and the interface block 1724 and feeder software block 1726 each coupling the speech encoder/decoder 1723 concurrently to the two or more software objects A, B, etc. of
By this point, a pair of proxy identifiers has now been selected, identifying the proxies to be accessed. Next in
After step 1856, operations then go on to an optional step 1861 to reset the diversity flag off. In this way, control software outside
Next in a step 1866, now that connections to proxies A and B are open, operations proceed to enable the codec 421 and interface software 441 of
A decision step 1876 determines whether one or both connections to proxy A, B, etc. are to be continued. Improvements as taught in the copending incorporated patent application TI-28906 suitably provide for changes in source rate, diversity rate, diversity type and otherwise as described therein, for example at or associated with steps 1871 and 1876. If a connection is to be continued, operations loop back to step 1871. If a connection is to be discontinued, then that connection is gracefully closed in a step 1881 whereupon operations in any remaining proxy or proxies continue by looping back to step 1871 for them. If communications are to be entirely discontinued, then step 1881 gracefully closes connections to all the proxies A, B, etc., and operations reach a RETURN 1886.
Among other things shown in
Put in a somewhat different way, a process embodiment type sends to a receiver computer packets of real-time information at a sender computer via a network that has at least two routers. The process operates the sender computer to send requests to two or more of the routers to establish at least one common destination for the at least two routers of packets from the sender computer. A destination or receiver computer then receives packets of the real-time information from the same one source or sender computer at the receiver computer from the two or more of the routers to which requests were sent. The process at the receiver processes the packets from said two or more of said routers to reduce the number of lost packets compared to receiving the packets from only one of said routers.
Since a path diversity packet communication process suitably alternatively has the receiver open the connections, another process of receiving packets of real-time information has a receiver computer connected to a network that has packets originated from a source, the packets being replicated and the packets then sent to multiple destinations through at least two routers. In the receiver computer the process operates to send requests to two or more of said routers to establish the receiver computer as a destination for said at least two routers of packets from the same one source, and then receives packets of the real-time information from the same one source at the receiver computer from the two or more of said routers to which requests were sent. The packets from the two or more of the routers are processed to reduce the number of lost packets compared to receiving the packets from only one of the routers.
Another type of inventive embodiment is comprised by an information storage article of manufacture that has a storage medium holding physical variations representing bits of stored information about proxies and an identification process that identifies upon request at least two of the proxies for packet network path diversity using the stored information. The storage article is suitably implemented in various advantageous forms for particular purposes as a nonvolatile integrated circuit memory, a “floppy” diskette, an optically accessible medium such as compact disk like CD-ROM (read only memory), a hard disk drive with rigid disk magnetic storage, a storage area network (SAN) or other storage known to the art or yet to be devised.
Next in
Further in
In
Note that the search table of
Considering further the operations of the proxy list server 151 of
In a second procedure, the tabular information of
Turning to the subject of search processes, in one version of the search table step 1921 of
In another version of the search table step 1921 of
The
Given a source and a destination, another form of search step 1921 searches the Link Matrix 2121 entries for different network paths between the source and destination. For instance at least one pair of suitable paths are selected depending on a search condition depending on number of path nodes in common. One type of search condition specifies one pair of paths are selected which has a ratio H5 of a first number of path nodes (or links) in common divided by a sum of the nodes (or links) in each path wherein the ratio is less than a predetermined amount. This is an example wherein at least one pair of paths are selected based on a first number depending on links shared by the paths divided by a second number depending on the number of links in at least one of the paths. Another part of the search process suitably compares numbers of links or hops in the paths of each possible pair, and selects at least one pair of paths which have about the same number of links in each. Where the table provides network distances including numbers of hops Hsa from source-to-proxyA, Hsb from source-to-proxyB, Had from proxyA-to-destination, and Hbd from proxyB-to-destination, then the search includes a search in a range of values of a path-length ratio H0=(Hsa+Had)/(Hsb+Hbd), wherein the range includes unity.
When a pair of paths is found, as illustrated in the illustrated Hops Digraph 2111 for a portion of network 100, at least one proxy A for media over packet purposes in a first path is identified from proxy information of
In another version of the search table step 1921 of
In a yet more complex version of the just mentioned approach, the search uses Hops Table 2131 as a table of distances that provides network distances including numbers of hops from source-to-proxyA, from source-to-proxyB, from proxyA-to-proxyB, from proxyA-to-destination, and from proxyB-to-destination, and the search condition at least provides inequalities on a set of ratios H1, H2, H3, H4. Ratio H1 is a ratio of the number of hops Hab from proxyA-to-proxyB to the number of hops Hsa from source to proxy A. H2 is the ratio of the number of hops Hab from proxyA-to-proxyB to the number of hops Hsb from source to proxy B. H3 is the ratio of the number of hops Hab from proxyA-to-proxyB to the number of hops Had from proxy A to destination. H4 is the ratio of the number of hops Hab from proxyA-to-proxyB to the number of hops Hbd from proxy B to destination. The inequalities are that H1, H2, H3, H4 are respectively greater than respective predetermined constants. All the constants are suitably set to two (2) and adjustments and iterations made relative to those values.
In the simple example of
A first list generation process sections a geographic region like a country or a world region or the entire world into a number of different numbered areas. Given a location of source host 811, the list generation process identifies the numbered area in which destination 817 lies. From the destination area number, the list generation process then selects a pair of proxies A and B prestored in server 151 and/or 815.
A second list generation process similarly sections a world region into a number of different numbered areas. Given a location of source host 811, the list generation process identifies the numbered area in which destination 817 lies. From the destination area number, the second list generation process then accesses a first prestored list of recommended proxies any of which host 811 may select to be its proxy A. Also, from the destination area number, the second list generation process further accesses a second prestored list of recommended proxies any of which host 811 may select to be its proxy B.
A third list generation process similarly sections a world region into a number of different numbered areas. A prestored Region Table lists all the proxies in Region 1, all the proxies in Region 2, etc. Given a location of source host 811, the list generation process identifies the number of a region Rs in which the source lies, and also the numbered region Rd in which destination 817 lies. From the source and destination region numbers, the third list generation process then identifies two different regions Ra and Rb other than the source and destination regions. These two different regions are suitably between the source and destination regions and laterally displaced from a line joining the source and destination regions. Now that regions Ra and Rb are identified, the process accesses the Region Table and provides a first prestored list of recommended proxies in Region Ra, any of which proxies host 811 may select to be its proxy A. Further, the process accesses the Region Table and provides a second prestored list of recommended proxies in Region Rb, any of which proxies host 811 may select to be its proxy B.
One uncomplicated embodiment advantageously is free of using information about the position of source host 811 and destination host 817. Here a table as in
An identification process discussed in connection with
Condition 1 specifies that each acceptable pair of proxies have a distance Q between them that exceeds a predetermined value Y. Value Y suitably is large enough to virtually guarantee path diversity in the network and not so large as might introduce unnecessary path delay. Value Y suitably lies in a range of 200 kilometers to 2000 kilometers. One example of value Y is suitably 300 kilometers, or about 200 miles.
Condition 2: Note further that each proxy has a perpendicular distance to line R. For example, in
Condition 3 introduces a further condition relating the proxy location to the source location and destination location, so that the proxy location is not too far afield of line segment R. Condition 3 specifies that line segment R be intersected by respective perpendiculars from proxies B and D. In other words, the perpendiculars do not intersect the extended line beyond the line segment R.
Condition 4: Based on particular information available to the skilled worker, values of Y which are less than 200 km and greater than 2000 km may also turn out to be quite suitable, and when such is the case, their use is contemplated herein as well. For example, quite satisfactory path-diversity results by routing path-diverse packets and dependent packets through paths operated by different long haul service providers (e.g., MCI and AT&T independent fiber networks) wherein these paths are even physically next to one another. Thus, distance Q between proxies is not a sole defining criterion of the more important goal: path diversity. Accordingly, maintain proxy descriptor entries such as network service provider corresponding to each proxy and DIFFSERV class of service CoS provided, or other service descriptor. Condition 4 then specifies that if any of conditions 1, 2 and 3 are not met, that a proxy pair is still acceptable if they have diverse machine descriptor entries in
Condition 5: Network topology conditions are herein defined to specify which pairs of proxies will provide path diversity. Here, use descriptors such as numbers of hops from source-to-proxyA, from source-to-proxyB, from proxyA-to-proxyB, from proxyA-to-destination, and from proxyB-to-destination. For example, a path diversity criterion suitably establishes inequalities on a set of ratios H1, H2, H3, H4. Ratio H1 is the ratio of the number of hops Hab from proxyA-to-proxyB to the number of hops Hsa from source to proxy A. H2 is the ratio of the number of hops Hab from proxyA-to-proxyB to the number of hops Hsb from source to proxy B. H3 is the ratio of the number of hops Hab from proxyA-to-proxyB to the number of hops Had from proxy A to destination. H4 is the ratio of the number of hops Hab from proxyA-to-proxyB to the number of hops Hbd from proxy B to destination. Then the inequalities are that H1>2, H2>2, H3>2, H4>2. In other words the hops between proxies A and B should be sufficiently great compared to the source-to-proxy hops and proxy-to-destination hops. The thresholds for the ratios are established individually and suitably lie in a range of 0.5 to 5, by way of an example range. Next a path-length ratio H0 is kept close to unity (e.g. in an example range 0.7 to 1.3) to avoid path latency differences. Ratio H0, for example, is determined as the ratio of the sum of hops from source-to-proxyA plus hops from proxyA-to-destination divided by the sum of hops from source-to-proxyB plus hops from proxyB-to-destination. In mathematics, this ratio is
H0=(Hsa+Had)/(Hsb+Hbd).
A second topological approach utilizes Link Matrix 2121 of ones and zeroes to indicate network links between nodes having identifiers 1,2,3, . . . that also identify each row and identify each column. Zero entry means no link, and “one” entry means presence of a link between the network node of the entry's column and a different network node corresponding to the entry's row. The algorithm then searches the matrix for different paths between source and destination. Some of these paths will have many nodes in common. Other paths will have that a number of nodes in common being less than some threshold of commonality as a ratio H5 of all the nodes in the paths. Then pairs of paths are selected by an automatic selection process program which have a low ratio of nodes in common to the sum of the nodes in both paths in the pair. So this ratio is made less than one-tenth ( 1/10) for example. Again, the constraint that path-length ratio H0 be close to unity is introduced to further sift the path selections. Next, the automatic selection process identifies a node on each path that has a VoIP proxy implemented as described herein so that specifying each VoIP proxy node allows for path diversity herein.
Other conditions than those described may be used, and none of the conditions is necessarily required.
When path diversity is set up via an even number M of proxies, then M/2 (half of M) multiple distinct pairs of proxies from the list X are selected, none of the pairs having a proxy in common with any other selected pair. When path diversity is set up via an odd number M of proxies (three or more), then (M+1)/2 multiple distinct pairs of proxies from the list X are selected, with one of the pairs having a proxy in common with one other selected pair.
In
In
The process provides a prestored region table 2571 that identifies the proxies located in respective regions. From respective source and destination regions, or first and second regions identified in step 2521, the process then in a step 2551 identifies third and fourth regions other than the first and second regions, wherein the third and fourth regions are displaced from the line joining the source and destination regions, as indicated by the parameter for example.
In a step 2561, the region table 2571 for the third region is accessed to provide at least one identifier of a proxy in the third region, e.g., proxy identifier “4R” in
The process of
Then in a step 2581 each pair of selected proxy identifiers such as (4R,N3) is output to the sender computer. Or in a more complex system, the pair is output to a requestor computer which then relays them to the sender computer for use as in
A decision step 2591 determines whether the request-servicing process of
A microphone and A/D circuit supply speech/audio codec 2621 with sampled audio information. Speech/audio codec 2621 supplies frames via path diversity dependent packet interface 2631 and to packetize block 2641 which couples to multiple software objects A, B, . . . E connecting via a block 2661 to two or more network path diverse proxies A, B, . . . E. Block 2661 is any kind of modem or any device that has a link layer and/or physical layer for communication purposes.
Various image sources supply image data via a control interface CTRL I/F to video compressor and/or image compressor 2671. The image sources include a television Tuner, a VCR video tape recorder and player, a video camera, a CD-ROM drive having images on it, a digital still camera, the output of a medical image processing computer such as a CAT (computer aided tomography) scanner, PET (positron emission tomography) scanner, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner or other image processing computer (not shown).
In an architecturally elegant and similar way to the audio blocks above, image compressor 2671 supplies frames via path diversity dependent image packet interface 2673 and to packetize block 2641 which couples to multiple software objects A, B, . . . E connecting via the modem 2661 to two or more network path diverse proxies A, B, . . . E. Real time data such as from a medical monitor or industrial process control (not shown) are suitably coupled analogously into the transmit path in packets and dependent packets coupled to the software objects A, B, . . . E for transmission by the advantageous packet network path diversity.
In the receive direction multiple software objects A, B, . . . E receive packets from path diversity communication paths in network 100 and supply them to depacketize block 2643 coupled to feeder software 2633. Feeder software 2633 provides depacketized frames and dependent frame data to audio codec 2621 for decoding of frames for output through D/A converter and an audio output transducer such as a loudspeaker. Lost packet compensation in feeder software 2633 occurs by substituting dependent data from dependent packets for packets which either never arrived or arrived too late, or by coupling multiple mutually dependent data to codec 2621 for combining or other reconstruction.
In an architecturally elegant and similar way in the image path, the multiple software objects A, B, . . . E also receive image packets from path diversity communication paths in network 100 and supply them to depacketize block 2643 coupled to image feeder software 2675. Image feeder software 2675 provides image data and dependent image data to image decompression in block 2671 for decompression of image frames. Lost packet compensation in image feeder software 2675 also substitutes dependent image data from dependent image packets for image packets which either never arrived or arrived too late. Decompressed image frames are output to a Display system such as television or cathode ray tube monitor, or liquid crystal display, or digital micromirror display or digital light processing display, video recorder, image processing equipment, storage area network (SAN), or other image utilization systems.
The media over packet control 2611 is coupled to a GUI graphical user interface 2681 associated with the Display. The GUI 2681 is suitably controlled by an infrared or Bluetooth wireless link from a remote 2683, from a wireless or wired keyboard 2685, and/or from a wearable communication and control device.
Real time data such as from a medical monitor or industrial process control are suitably coupled from network 100 via software objects A, B, . . . E analogously into the receive path in packets and dependent packets and feeder software used for lost packet compensation to improve QoS and coupling to a medical and/or industrial information processing and display.
In gateway, wireless base station, and other applications a recoder 2691 is suitably enabled by media over packet control 2611. Image information decompressed by block 2671 and audio information decoded by audio codec 2621 are both coupled to the recoder 2691. Recoder 2691 then recodes or transcodes the information and produces an output compressed and coded according to a different form than was received by system 2600. It is contemplated that systems such as those shown in
Where blocks are shown herein, they are suitably implemented in hardware, firmware or software in any combination.
The embodiments described are merely illustrative, while the scope of the inventive subject matter is defined by the claims and equivalents thereof.
This application is a divisional of prior application Ser. No. 12/638,578, filed Dec. 15, 2009, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,961,758, issued Jun. 14, 2011; Which is a divisional of application Ser. No. 11/175,411, filed Jul. 6, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,693,062, granted Apr. 6, 2010; Which is a division of application Ser. No. 10/320,205, filed Dec. 16, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,930,983, granted Aug. 16, 2005; which was a division of application Ser. No. 09/552,090, filed Apr. 19, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,496,477, granted Dec. 17, 2002; which was a divisional of application Ser. No. 09/551,793, filed Apr. 18, 2000, which was a divisional of application Ser. No. 09/526,270, filed Mar. 15, 2000, which claims priority from Provisional Application No. 60/145,848, filed Jul. 9, 1999. This application incorporates application Ser. No. 09/461,155, filed Dec. 14, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,757,256 (TI-28906).
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| 5883891 | Williams et al. | Mar 1999 | A |
| 6144888 | Lucas et al. | Nov 2000 | A |
| 6366888 | Kroon et al. | Apr 2002 | B1 |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20110211573 A1 | Sep 2011 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60145848 | Jul 1999 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 12638578 | Dec 2009 | US |
| Child | 13101692 | US | |
| Parent | 11175411 | Jul 2005 | US |
| Child | 12638578 | US | |
| Parent | 10320205 | Dec 2002 | US |
| Child | 11175411 | US | |
| Parent | 09552090 | Apr 2000 | US |
| Child | 10320205 | US | |
| Parent | 09551793 | Apr 2000 | US |
| Child | 09552090 | US | |
| Parent | 09526270 | Mar 2000 | US |
| Child | 09551793 | US |
