Video Receiver Buffer Merging for Hitless Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current video transmission systems require high bandwidth and increased receiver size to support seamless switching and hitless protection, as they need to temporarily or continuously receive multiple video streams, leading to increased costs and resource utilization.
Innovation Solution
A video transmission system and receiver configuration that enables seamless switching and hitless protection by selectively switching between two IP-packetized video streams, using a network to transmit only one stream during the second switching function, and employing buffers to synchronize packet arrival times, thereby reducing the required input bandwidth and receiver size.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the video receiver receives two video streams temporarily for seamless switching, then video interruption is prevented, but the bandwidth requirement doubles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the functions of receiving and buffering two separate video streams into a single integrated buffer structure. The buffer is configured to hold packets from both the first and second video streams, allowing the system to switch between streams without requiring double the bandwidth capacity at any given moment. This combining approach reduces resource consumption while maintaining the ability to perform seamless switching.
Solution Approach 2:
The buffer in the video receiver is designed with multi-functionality to serve both seamless switching and hitless protection purposes. By making the buffer universal, the system can handle both types of switching operations without requiring separate dedicated buffers for each function, thereby reducing the overall bandwidth requirement while maintaining both video continuity features.
2Reliability
If the video receiver continuously receives two video streams for hitless protection, then path failure is covered, but the bandwidth requirement doubles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the reception and buffering of video streams from both active and backup paths into a single buffer infrastructure. This merging allows the system to maintain path redundancy for hitless protection while avoiding the need to allocate double the bandwidth capacity simultaneously for both paths, as the buffer efficiently manages packets from either path as needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The buffer is designed as a universal component that serves both seamless switching and hitless protection functions. This multi-functionality enables the system to implement path redundancy without requiring separate dedicated resources for each protection mechanism, thereby reducing bandwidth consumption while maintaining reliability.
3Reliability
If separate buffers are provided for seamless switching and hitless protection, then both functions work independently, but the receiver size increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the buffer resources for seamless switching and hitless protection into a single shared buffer structure. This combination allows both functions to operate independently using the same physical buffer infrastructure, thereby reducing the receiver size while maintaining the functional independence and reliability of both switching mechanisms.
4Productivity
If the same bandwidth is used for both switching functions, then resource utilization improves, but complex switching control is required
Solution Approach 1:
The buffer is designed as a universal resource that handles both seamless switching and hitless protection operations. This multi-functional design enables efficient bandwidth utilization while the controller manages the switching logic between the two functions, balancing resource efficiency with controlled complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller acts as an intermediary that manages the shared buffer resource for both switching functions. By introducing this control intermediary, the system can efficiently allocate and manage the same bandwidth resource for both seamless switching and hitless protection, reducing resource waste while maintaining organized and manageable switching control logic.
Data Source
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AI summary
Provided are a video-signal switching method and a video receiver(110) having two functions: a switching function between video signals in a currently-active system and in a backup system; and a switching function between two different videos. The present invention provides a video transmission system(100) including video transmitters(121,122), a network (130) connected to the video transmitters (121, 122), and a video receiver(110) connected to the network(130) and configured to receive video streams(151,152) of two IP-packetized video contents from the video transmitters(121,122). The video receiver(110) has: a function of switching from an outputting video stream(151), which is continuously received but no longer receivable, to the other video stream (161) of the same video content; and functions of stopping receiving one of the two video streams (151, 152) from the video transmitters(121,122), receiving the other video stream(161,162) having a different video content, and switching the outputting video stream(151) to the other video stream(161) thus received.