Buffer Management for ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Data Repair

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Solution Overview

Problem

In digital television systems using ATSC 3.0, concurrent memory access by different software applications or hardware circuits for error correction and content rendering/storage leads to contention, particularly when repairing multi-bit errors or missing packets, as existing forward error correction methods cannot handle all error scenarios effectively.

Innovation Solution

A method involving multiple buffers with distinct memory ranges is implemented to manage and repair broadcast digital television data elements, allowing simultaneous reception, error correction, and communication to decompression or storage engines, preventing memory contention by cyclically reassigning buffer operations and memory pointers.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If concurrent memory access is allowed for error correction and content rendering/storage, then processing efficiency is improved, but memory contention and access conflicts occur

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveprocessing efficiencyVSAvoidmemory access stability

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent divides the content memory into multiple separate memory regions (first content memory, second content memory, third content memory) with distinct access rights. The error correction application is granted access to first and second content memory, while the rendering and storage applications have access to second and third content memory respectively. This segmentation prevents concurrent access conflicts by isolating memory access paths while still enabling parallel processing operations.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

2Manufacturing precision

If repair process replaces all packets in Group of Frames, then content quality is improved, but processing time and memory usage increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent qualityVSAvoidprocessing time

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary error detection and classification of packets before initiating the repair process. By identifying which packets are actually corrupted versus which are merely missing or redundant, the system can prepare replacement packets in advance and only process the necessary portions of the Group of Frames, reducing overall processing time while maintaining content quality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

Instead of uniformly processing all packets in a Group of Frames, the patent applies selective repair only to specific packets that are identified as corrupted or missing. The error correction application replaces only the affected packets while leaving intact packets unchanged, thereby reducing processing overhead while maintaining the quality of the corrected content.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentUS11792473B2Stream repair memory management

Publication Date: 2023.10.17 SATURN LICENSING LLC

AI summary

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. Multiple memory buffers are used to manage broadcast packet repair and presentation or storage.