System and method for real time video communication employing fountain coding

摘要

Real-time video can be efficiently and reliably streamed over wireless networks by fountain encoding a stream of video packets at the frame-level. Specifically, deep packet inspection may be performed on the stream of video packets to identify a set of video packets corresponding to an intra-coded frame (I-frame). The set of video packet may then be fountain encoded together as a data segment to produce a set of fountain encoded packets corresponding to the I-frame. Video packets corresponding to other frames (e.g., P-frames, etc.) may also be encoded on a frame-by-frame basis. This may allow a user equipment (UE) to begin displaying earlier frames in a group of pictures (GoP) while fountain encoded packets for subsequent frames are still being received, thereby reducing latency and improving the overall user experience.

主权项

1. A method for transmitting real-time video packets in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
receiving, by a first access point, fountain encoded packets from a gateway, the fountain encoded packets including at least a first set of fountain encoded packets corresponding to a video frame in a sequence of video frames; storing the first set of fountain encoded packets in a buffer of the first access point; transmitting, by the first access point, at least some fountain encoded packets in the first set of fountain encoded packets over a radio interface extending from the first access point to a user equipment (UE); receiving, by the first access point, an uplink broadcast message from the UE, the uplink broadcast message indicating that the video frame has been successfully decoded by the UE; and dropping remaining fountain encoded packets in the first set of fountain encoded packets from the buffer without sending the remaining fountain encoded packets over the radio interface upon receiving the uplink broadcast message indicating that the video frame has been successfully decoded by the UE.