The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 26, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 25, 1996
Paul Wallace Lyons, New Egypt, NJ (US);
Thomson multimedia S.A., Courbevoie, FR;
Abstract
A transport stream encoder comprises a plurality of component signal sources. One of the component signals sources is a source of an opportunistic data component signal carrying a block of data having a predetermined size to be transferred within a predetermined period of time. A packet generator is coupled to the plurality of component signal sources, and produces a composite packet stream, partitioned into successive groups containing a plurality of packet slots. A memory stores a plurality of priority lists respectively associated with the plurality of packet slots. Each priority list contains a plurality of entries, and each entry contains data representing a respective one of the plurality of component signal sources. A scheduler is responsive to the entries in the plurality of priority lists and conditions the packet generator to generate a packet for each one of the packet slots. The generated packet contains data from a component signal source selected from among the component signal sources having representative data in the entries in the priority list associated with that packet slot. A processor modifies the entries in the plurality of priority lists in such a manner as to ensure that a packet containing data from the opportunistic data component signal source is generated with sufficient time regularity to guarantee that the block of data is transferred within the predetermined time period.