WO2000038358A2

WO2000038358A2 - System and method for error detection in data broadcast transmissions using a plurality of monitoring receivers

Info

Publication number: WO2000038358A2
Application number: PCT/US1999/029876
Authority: WO
Inventors: Donald K. Newell; Raj Yavatkar
Original assignee: Intel Corporation
Priority date: 1998-12-21
Filing date: 1999-12-16
Publication date: 2000-06-29
Also published as: TW449983B; WO2000038358A3; AU2589400A

Abstract

Error sampling broadcast data is disclosed. One embodiment includes a system. The system includes a main station, a plurality of receivers, and one or more sampling stations. The main station broadcasts information to one or more predetermined regions. The plurality of receivers are in each of the predetermined regions and receive the information broadcasted. The one or more sampling stations are within the predetermined regions and receive the same information broadcasted by the main station and then convey information regarding reception back to the main station.

Description

DATA BROADCAST ERROR SAMPLING

FIELD

This invention relates generally to broadcasting data, and more particularly to data broadcast error sampling.

BACKGROUND Broadcasting data occurs increasingly today. Besides normal analog broadcasting, digital broadcasting is occurring. Analog broadcasting is used for standard television. Digital broadcasting is now being used for television, audio, and electronic magazines. Digital broadcasting allows the mass transfer of anything that can be converted to digital format.

Typically, the sending of digital data is done on a one-to-one basis. For example, one computer sending an email message to another computer over the internet. If the receiving computer has a problem receiving the data, it could tell the sending computer to resend it. This is not too significant of a problem. There is also the situation where the transfer of digital data would be to a few computers. For example, a network server handling 80 client computers on a local network. This is not too bad of a problem because the few receivers could contact the sender and have faulty data resent. A sender could easily resend data to one or a few receivers. However, the situation occurs when there is a one-to- many situation such as one computer sending digital data of a speech being given, it is difficult for the sender to receive requests for resending of faulty data due to the number of requests that could be made. To keep track of all the receivers and what data they are missing is difficult. Thus, it is not easy to reliably broadcast data in a one-to-many configuration.

Under typical analog broadcasting, errors were not a major concern. An error could cause a flicker on the TV that would go unnoticed. However, digital broadcasting includes much more than TV broadcasting and the need for reliability is much greater.

The only current mechanism for attempting to increase reliability of a broadcast is retransmission. This is very inefficient for the broadcaster. The present invention addresses these and other problems. SUMMARY

The present invention relates to data broadcast error sampling. One embodiment includes a system. The system includes a main station, a plurality of receivers, and one or more sampling stations. The main station broadcasts information to one or more predetermined regions. The plurality of receivers are in each of the predetermined regions and receive the information broadcasted. The one or more sampling stations are within the predetermined regions and are receiving the same information broadcast by the main station and then convey information regarding reception back to the main station. The invention includes systems, methods, and sampling stations of varying scope. Still other embodiments, aspects, and advantages will become apparent upon reference to the drawings and study of the detailed description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows a diagram of a system according to the embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows a diagram of a system according to the embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of a method according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of a method according to an embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 5 shows a diagram of a computer in conjunction with which an embodiment of the invention may be practiced.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings and in which is shown by way of illustration specific exemplary embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that logical, mechanical, electrical and other changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.

Referring to FIG. 1, a system according to an embodiment of the invention shown. The system includes a main station 101, a plurality of receivers 103, and one or more sampling stations 104. The main station broadcasts information to one or more predetermined regions 102. The main station may be a data provider or a broadcaster. The information may be digital or analog. The predetermined regions may be states, counties, or any other type of geographic region. The predetermined regions may be types of receivers such as, for example, computers using modems. They may be made such that the regions are small enough so that the receivers have similar reception in the region but large enough so that the number of sampling stations needed are small. The plurality of receivers are located in each of the predetermined regions and receive the information. The one or more sampling stations within each predetermined region receive the information and convey reception quality to the main stations. The sampling stations receive the same broadcast information as the receivers. Thus, the reception at the sampling station is similar to the reception at the receivers. The reception quality may be a percentage of data received or acceptability of the information. The acceptable degradation of the information may vary for different types of information being broadcast. The acceptable degradation of a video phone might be less strict than the acceptability of a pay per view system. The second information regarding reception quality may be any information that the main station would like to know. Another embodiment of the invention is a sampling station 200 and is shown in FIG. 2. The sampling station includes a sampling station receiver 202 and a comparator 203. The sampling station receiver receives broadcast data from a source 201. The sampling station receiver 202 receives that data similar to other receivers. The comparator 203 compares the broadcasted data to expected data and generates a report to be transmitted to the source. The broadcasted data may be in a digital or analog format. The expected data is data that is more reliable than the broadcast data. The expected data may be error free data. The sampling station 200 may be given the data before hand. The expected data may also be data received by a more reliable method than broadcasting. For example, the data could be transferred by a direct link to from the source 201 to the sampling station 200.

The report contains information about reception quality and is sent to the source. The report may include a percentage of faulty data compared to the total amount broadcasted. Or, the report may include a determination as to whether the source should rebroadcast data. It would then be up to the source to provide corrected data.

Referring to FIG. 3, a method according to an embodiment of the invention is shown. The data is broadcast by a main station 301. The main station may be a data broadcaster or a data provider. The main station may also be a data provider and a data broadcaster. The data may digital or analog. The data is received at a sampling station 302. The sampling station reception is similar to the reception of receivers in a region. The data is compared to expected data 303. The expected data may be error free data or more reliable data. For example, the error free data can be data sent to the sampling station prior to broadcasting or the more reliable data can be data transfered directly from the main station to the sampling station. The measure of of faulty data is determined by the comparison 304. The faulty data may include dropped, missing or corrupted data. Then, the main station is notified of the measure of faulty data 305. The main station may be notified of the measure of faulty data by being informed of the faulty data or by a percentage of missing data. Or, the main station may be notified to retransmit. The decision to retransmit can be base on determining that the measure of faulty data is above an acceptable threshold 306. This can be determined at the sampling station or the main station. The acceptable threshold can be determined as needed by the implementation. As an example, the acceptable threshold may be a percentage of data that is faulty. The data may be retransmitted to all possible receivers or to one or more particular regions. The method previously described permits a broadcaster of data to receive information regarding reception quality that adequately represents the typical reception quality of receivers. The method allows the broadcaster of data to receive such information in a manner that does not overwhelm its resources. 4

Further, the method permits the broadcaster to retransmit data to only those areas that need data retransmitted.

Referring to FIG. 4, a computer-readable medium 400 having computer- executable instructions according to an embodiment of the invention is shown. Broadcast data is received from a source 401. The broadcast data can be digital or analog. The source may be a data broadcaster. The broadcast data is compared to expected data to determine if there have been any errors introduced 402. The expected data can be error free data or more reliable data. The error free data could have been sent before the data was broadcasted. The more reliable data can be data sent directly from the source to a receiver. If errors are found 403, an error report can be transmitted or sent to the source 404.

The embodiments described allow data to be broadcast for electronic magazines, hypertext markup language (HTML) pages, and similar data. HTML is described in RFC 1866 "HyperText Markup Language 2.0", T. Berners-Lee and D. Connolly, November 1995. available at http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfcl866.txt. The data can be broadcast according to MPEG (Motion Pictures Expert Group)-2 or any other similar format for broadcasting. MPEG is described in ISO 13818-1. Data broadcast error sampling has been described. Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that any arrangement which is calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown. This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the present invention. Therefor, it is manifestly intended that this invention be limited only by the following claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

What is claimed:

1. A system comprising: a main station to broadcast information to one or more predetermined regions; a plurality of receivers in each of the predetermined regions to receive the information; and one or more sampling stations within each predetermined region to receive the information and convey reception quality to the main station.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the information is in a digital format.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the main station comprises at least one of a data provider or a broadcaster.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the reception quality comprises acceptability of the information.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined regions are such that receivers and sampling stations in the predetermined region have similar reception.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the predetermined region is geographic.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the predetermined region is defined by the type of receivers.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the reception quality comprises a percentage of faulty data compared to good data received.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a determination to rebroadcast the information if the percentage is greater than a predetermined threshold.

10. A sampling station comprising : a receiver to receive broadcast data from a source; and a comparator to compare the broadcast data to expected data and to generate a report to be transmitted to the source.

11. The sampling station of claim 10, wherein the broadcast data comprises digital data.

12. The sampling station of claim 10, wherein the expected data comprises known error free data.

13. The sampling station of claim 10, wherein the expected data comprises inherently more reliable data than the broadcast data.

14. The sampling station of claim 10, wherein the error report comprises a percentage of faulty data compared to the expected data.

15. The sampling station of claim 10, further comprising a transmitter to transmit the error report to the source.

16. The sampling station of claim 15, wherein the error report comprises a determination as to whether data needs to be rebroadcasted.

17. A method comprising: broadcasting data by a main station; receiving the data at a sampling station; comparing the data to expected data; determining a measure of faulty data; and sending the measure of faulty data to the main station.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising transmitting data from a data broadcaster to the main station.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the data comprises digital data.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the expected data comprises known error free data.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the expected data comprises inherently more reliable data than the data received.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising retransmitting the data upon determining that the measure of faulty data is above an acceptable threshold.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein determining that the measure of faulty data is above an acceptable threshold comprises calculating a percent of the erred data compared to the expected data to see if the percent is above a predetermined level.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein retransmitting the data further comprises transmitting data only to a predetermined region that the sampling station is located in.

25. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions comprising: receiving broadcast data from a source; comparing the broadcast data to expected data; and if errors are found, transmitting an error report to the source.