Router Sub-stream Filtering for Multimedia Bandwidth Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing solutions for delivering television programs over DSL lines face a bottleneck in data transfer due to high bandwidth requirements, especially with the development of bandwidth-consuming services like telephony, videoconferencing, and gaming, despite high-speed connections between routers and multimedia units.
Innovation Solution
A method to optimize data streams between a router and a multimedia unit by defining a user's profile, filtering unnecessary sub-streams based on this profile, and sending only the required sub-streams, categorizing sub-streams into static and dynamic profiles, and managing video streams, audio streams, and control streams accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If all sub-streams are transmitted from the router to the multimedia unit, then the multimedia unit can access all available services and streams, but the data flow and bandwidth consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The router extracts and transmits only the specific sub-streams required by the multimedia unit based on the user profile, separating necessary data from unnecessary data. This extraction principle reduces the quantity of transmitted data while maintaining access to needed services.
Solution Approach 2:
The transmission quality and data composition are customized locally for each user based on their profile characteristics. Different users receive different subsets of sub-streams tailored to their specific needs, rather than a uniform complete set for all users.
2Quantity of substance
If the router transmits only filtered sub-streams based on user profile, then the bandwidth consumption is reduced, but the system complexity increases due to profile management and filtering mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The user profile is defined and stored in advance before the actual data transmission occurs. This preliminary configuration allows the router to perform simple filtering operations based on pre-established criteria, reducing the complexity of real-time decision-making.
Solution Approach 2:
The user profile acts as an intermediary data structure that mediates between the user's service requirements and the router's filtering operations. This intermediary simplifies the interaction by providing a standardized format for expressing service preferences.
3Speed
If high-speed IP connection is used between router and multimedia unit, then the data transfer speed is improved, but the bottleneck remains due to the available user access speed being much lower
Solution Approach 1:
The router extracts only the essential sub-streams needed by the user before transmission, removing unnecessary data that would otherwise consume valuable bandwidth. This extraction ensures that the limited user access speed is used efficiently for transmitting only valuable content.
Data Source
AI summary
Even if high speed are available between the router and the multimedia unit through the IP line (up to 24Mbits/sec), this is still the bottleneck in term of data transfer. Indeed in practice the vast majority of IP users have access speed between 2 to 5Mbits/sec and the development of other services (telephony, videoconference, push VOD, game) are bandwidth consuming. It is now an object of the invention to propose a solution to reduce the data flow between the router and the multimedia unit over IP line. This is achieved by a method to optimize the data stream between a router and a multimedia unit, the router receiving at least one data stream forming a service and comprising several sub-streams from which part of them are alternatively used by the multimedia unit, the method comprising the steps of : - defining a set of data representing the multimedia unit's profile, - transmitting this set of data to the router, - filtering by the router the unnecessary sub-stream according the given profile, - sending the remaining sub-streams to the multimedia unit.