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:
Jul. 05, 2011
Filed:
Nov. 28, 2001
Matthew D Walker, Felixstowe, GB;
Richard J Jacobs, Woodbridge, GB;
Michael E Nilsson, Ipswich, GB;
British Telecommunications public limited company, London, GB;
Abstract
Real-time data (e.g. video) is streamed over packet networks (e.g. the Internet). Streamed video is provided without the start-up delay by transmitting data from a video streamer to the video viewer more rapidly than the video viewer consumes the data and using the excess data to build a buffer at the video viewer. When a suitable sized buffer is built the transmission rate of data to the buffer may be reduced. In order to deliver the best quality material for the available bandwidth, the supply of video data may be switched to a higher bit-rate source when the reservoir is filled. Fluctuations in network throughput may be accommodated during the transmission of data on a fine scale by adjusting the transmission rate of the data and on a coarse scale by switching between data streams encoded at different bit-rates. Fluctuations in network throughput are determined by counting the number of missing packets at the video viewer which information may then be fed back to the video streamer to adjust the flow of data accordingly.