TELECOMMUNICATION AND MULTIMEDIA MANAGEMENT METHOD AND APPARATUS

摘要

An improved communication system for sending media between a sending node and receiving node during a conversation. The system provides real time call functionality using a best-efforts mode of message delivery at rate "good enough" for rendering as soon as possible, and the guaranteed eventual delivery of exact copies of the messages as transmitted by requesting retransmission of full copies of any good enough copies of media, or any missing or corrupted data from the originally saved perfect copy. The system also optimizes the utilization of network bandwidth by making tradeoffs between timeliness and media quality, using the presence and intentions of the recipient(s) (i.e., to either review the media in real-time or in a time-shifted mode), as well as measures of instantaneous latency and packet on the network.