Audio Playback Buffer Management for Asynchronous Bus Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
In asynchronous digital bus systems, large memory spaces are required to compensate for transmission delays in digital audio signals, leading to high costs and inefficiencies, and existing solutions do not allow for prioritization of higher-priority audio data in motor vehicle applications.
Innovation Solution
A method and device that adjust data rates and processing speeds using a data rate converter and controller to manage a minimal temporary memory, allowing for prioritization of higher-priority audio data by generating and varying clocking signals based on the filling level of a data buffer, ensuring continuous playback without memory overflow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If large memory spaces are used to compensate for transmission delays in asynchronous digital bus systems, then continuous playback of audio signals is ensured, but system cost and complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the data buffer size adaptive rather than fixed. The buffer dynamically adjusts its storage capacity based on real-time transmission delay measurements and audio data arrival patterns. This allows the system to use minimal memory when transmission is stable while expanding buffer capacity only when needed to handle variability, thus ensuring continuous playback without permanently allocating large memory spaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of buffer size from a static large value to a dynamic value that adapts to transmission conditions. By monitoring transmission delay variations and adjusting the buffer size accordingly, the system optimizes memory usage while maintaining playback continuity. This parameter change transforms the contradiction by making memory allocation responsive to actual needs rather than provisionally oversized.
2Reliability
If large memory spaces are allocated for data buffering, then transmission delay compensation is achieved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements dynamic buffer size adjustment that adapts to actual transmission characteristics. Instead of manufacturing systems with large fixed buffers, the buffer grows or shrinks based on measured transmission delay variability. This dynamic approach allows cost-effective manufacturing with smaller base memory while maintaining reliable delay compensation through adaptive allocation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-adjustment by automatically monitoring transmission delay patterns and autonomously optimizing buffer size without external intervention. This self-service capability eliminates the need for manual configuration or oversized buffers designed for worst-case scenarios, reducing manufacturing costs while maintaining reliable delay compensation for actual operating conditions.
3Device complexity
If fixed memory allocation is used for audio data storage, then system simplicity is maintained, but ability to prioritize higher-priority audio data is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamic buffer allocation that can adaptively prioritize different audio data streams based on their importance. Instead of fixed equal-sized buffers for all audio sources, the system dynamically adjusts buffer sizes and allocation priorities according to data urgency and application requirements. This maintains relative system simplicity while enabling sophisticated prioritization through adaptive resource management.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and a device for the playback of digitalized audio signals that are transmitted packet-oriented from a signal source to at least one signal sink, especially a loudspeaker unit, in a motor vehicle by means of an asynchronous bus system. Connected upstream of the signal sink is an audio-signal processing unit demonstrating a data rate converter, which is fed the digitalized audio signals destined for the signal sink from a control unit over a data line by means of a first data interface of the control unit. The control unit has a second data interface for the connection to the asynchronous bus system and for receiving the digitalized audio signals. A data buffer and a controller are arranged within the control unit. A first and second clocking signal provide the clock rates for the first interface and the data rate converter. These clock rates can be changed by a logic unit.