Segmented Audio Data Streams with Entry-Point Error Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing audio transmission methods over error-prone channels with fixed length data segments face challenges in maintaining audio quality due to variable frame lengths, leading to potential loss of multiple frames and audible issues like time shifts and dropouts.
Innovation Solution
The method involves dividing data frames into constant-sized segments with additional transport protocol headers that provide information for self-containment and error management, allowing for efficient reconstruction and concealment of lost frames, reducing the likelihood of incorrect time synchronization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If variable length audio frames are transmitted over fixed length data segments, then data transmission efficiency is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to potential loss of multiple frames
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides variable length audio frames into fixed length segments for transmission. Each segment contains a portion of frame data and metadata about its position and completeness. This segmentation allows the system to transmit audio data efficiently over fixed-length channels while maintaining the ability to identify and recover from individual segment losses without corrupting entire frames.
2Loss of substance
If entropy coding with variable length code words is used, then compression efficiency is improved, but error resilience deteriorates as a single bit error corrupts the entire frame
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the entropy-coded bitstream into fixed-length transmission segments, each containing metadata that identifies complete code word boundaries and their positions. This allows the decoder to identify exactly which code words are affected by errors and only discard those specific code words rather than the entire frame, maintaining error resilience while preserving compression efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces metadata as an intermediary layer between the entropy-coded data and the decoder. This metadata contains information about code word boundaries, segment positions, and completeness flags, enabling the decoder to navigate the compressed data stream and identify error boundaries without having to parse the entire variable-length code word structure, thus improving error resilience.
3Device complexity
If multiple frames are contained within a single fixed length segment, then transmission overhead is reduced, but loss propagation increases as both frames become corrupt upon segment loss
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides frames into smaller fixed-length transmission segments with metadata that identifies the frame number and position within each frame. This fine-grained segmentation ensures that when a segment is lost, only the specific portion of a single frame contained in that segment is affected, not multiple entire frames, thereby reducing error loss propagation while maintaining reasonable transmission overhead.
4Reliability
If sync-words are used for re-synchronization, then decoder recovery capability is improved, but the ability to detect number of lost frames deteriorates leading to time shifts and dropouts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent embeds metadata in each transmission segment that includes the frame number and position information before transmission occurs. This preliminary encoding of position information allows the decoder to immediately detect how many frames or segments have been lost by comparing expected versus received sequence numbers, enabling accurate frame loss detection and proper time synchronization without relying solely on sync-word detection.
Data Source
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AI summary
An apparatus for generating a data stream having a series of segments using data organized in subsequent data frames. The apparatus comprises a packetiser for packetising data from a data frame into the series of segments having a first segment and a second segment, where the second segment has interpretable data entities and has a data entity fragment, the data entity fragment including only a part of an interpretable data entity preceding an interpretable data entity. The apparatus comprises furthermore an information block adder for adding an information block associated with the second segment, the information block indicating an entry point into the second segment, the entry point indicating a start of the interpretable data entity following the data entity fragment.