METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING DATA

摘要

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting data. A source encoder (203) receives data from a data source (201). The source encoder (203) produces a data stream that has a varying data rate. This stream is fed to a data segmenter (205), which packetises the data stream before feeding it to a data compressor (209). The data compressor (207) compresses the data stream so that it can be transmitted over a continuous circuit switched link which has a link data rate which is lower than the maximum data rate of the data stream. The compression is variable such that only data packets having data rates higher than the link data rate are compressed. Such compression is either lossy or loss-free compression depending on the compression level required. The compressed data is transmitter using a conventional transmitter (211) and received by a conventional receiver (213). The invention is applicable to cellular communication systems.