Network Gateway Header Modification for Codec Interworking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing telecommunications devices often require transcoding to communicate media between terminals with different codecs, which is computationally expensive and introduces latency, limiting seamless communication across heterogeneous networks.
Innovation Solution
A system that modifies media-capability information in initiation requests and packets to enable interworking between terminals with different codecs using codec pairs and network gateways, allowing terminals to communicate without transcoding by changing headers while maintaining a common payload format.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If transcoding is used to enable communication between terminals with different codecs, then interoperability between heterogeneous devices is improved, but computational complexity and latency increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a network gateway as an intermediary component that performs header modification between terminals with different codecs. The gateway receives packets from one terminal, modifies the codec-specific headers to a different format, and forwards to the other terminal. This intermediary approach enables interoperability without requiring the terminals themselves to perform complex transcoding operations, thus resolving the contradiction between adaptability and device complexity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If transcoding is performed to enable communication between terminals with different codecs, then interoperability is improved, but processing time and latency increase
Solution Approach 1:
The network gateway acts as a mediator that performs rapid header format conversion without full transcoding. By intercepting packets at the gateway level and performing only header modification rather than complete decoding and re-encoding, the system achieves interoperability with minimal processing delay, thus resolving the latency issue.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the communication process into distinct components: payload data remains unchanged while only the header portion is modified. This segmentation allows the system to perform minimal processing (header conversion) rather than processing the entire packet through full transcoding, significantly reducing processing time and latency while maintaining interoperability.
3Productivity
If header modification is performed by network gateway, then interoperability without transcoding is achieved, but network infrastructure complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The network gateway serves as a centralized intermediary that handles all header modification operations. Rather than requiring each terminal to have complex multi-codec support, the gateway consolidates the complexity in a single network element. This approach improves communication efficiency between heterogeneous terminals while concentrating infrastructure complexity in a manageable location.
Solution Approach 2:
The network gateway is designed as a universal component that can handle multiple codec pairs and formats. By making the gateway multi-functional rather than requiring each terminal to be multi-functional, the system achieves broad interoperability while keeping terminal devices simple. The gateway's universal capability resolves the contradiction between productivity and infrastructure complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
An anchoring network device of a telecommunications network can receive a first initiation request of a communication session and determine a second request indicating a different media capability than the first request. The different capabilities can share a payload format. A network gateway can modify headers of packets to change between the capabilities. In some examples, the anchoring device can determine that a codec list of the initiation request corresponds to a rewrite rule. The device can apply the rewrite rule to the request to provide a second request listing a second, different codec. The first codec and the second codec can both be associated with a common payload format. The network gateway can modify first packets from a first to a second terminal to replace first-codec headers with second-codec headers and vice-versa.