Transparent Multicast Tunneling for Mobile Multimedia Delivery
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing 3GPP specifications do not support transparent multicast for RTP content or IGMP in mobile telecommunications networks, limiting efficient delivery methods for multimedia content.
Innovation Solution
A multimedia server dynamically switches between multicast packets using a multimedia broadcast multicast service and tunnel delivery based on demand, ensuring seamless content delivery without reformatting or recoding, utilizing tunnel endpoint servers and protocols like PPTP or GRE.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If transparent multicast is implemented in mobile telecommunications networks, then bandwidth efficiency is improved, but protocol compatibility and client device complexity increase due to lack of native multicast support
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a tunnel endpoint server as an intermediary component in the network infrastructure. This server establishes tunnels between the multimedia server and client devices, enabling multicast-like efficient delivery without requiring native multicast protocol support in client devices. The tunnel endpoint server handles protocol translation and tunnel management, acting as a mediator that resolves the contradiction between bandwidth efficiency and client device complexity.
2Productivity
If demand-based switching between unicast and MBMS is implemented, then resource utilization is optimized, but system complexity increases due to dynamic delivery method switching
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic switching between unicast and MBMS delivery methods based on real-time demand thresholds. The system automatically transitions from unicast to MBMS when demand exceeds a threshold, and vice versa when demand falls below the threshold. This dynamic adaptation optimizes resource utilization by using efficient multicast delivery for high-demand content while maintaining individualized unicast delivery for low-demand content, with the switching logic managed by the tunnel endpoint server.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs feedback mechanisms where the tunnel endpoint server monitors demand levels and sends notifications to the multimedia server about delivery method changes. This feedback loop enables the system to adapt to changing content demand patterns, ensuring that the most efficient delivery method is used at any given time while maintaining system-wide consistency in delivery method selection.
3Adaptability or versatility
If tunnel protocol encapsulation is used for multicast packets, then compatibility with non-multicast networks is improved, but processing overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the protocol translation function from the client device and places it in the tunnel endpoint server. The tunnel endpoint server establishes dedicated tunnels with appropriate protocol encapsulation (such as PPTP or GRE) between the multimedia server and client devices. This extraction allows multicast packets to be efficiently encapsulated in tunnel protocols for traversal through non-multicast mobile networks, while the processing overhead is concentrated in the network infrastructure rather than distributed across numerous client devices.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
AI summary
The present invention relates to a method for providing multimedia content as multicast packets in a mobile communications network. The present invention further relates to a client device and a multimedia server capable of performing said method. The multimedia server determines a current demand value for the multimedia content, said value being the number of clients which are being provided with said multimedia content and the number of clients from which the request has been received but which are not yet being provided with said multimedia content. If the determined current demand value of said multimedia content is below said pre-defined threshold, the multimedia server provides said multitude of clients with said multimedia content using a tunnel which is set up to each one of said clients using a tunnel protocol, wherein said multimedia content is sent as multicast packets which are encapsulated by using said tunnel protocol.