Patent ID: 8804848
Filing Date: 2014-08-12
Classification: H04L,H04N

Abstract:
1. A system for media communications between a transmitting endpoint and one or more receiving endpoint(s) over a communications network, the network having one or more layered media transport link(s) including a more reliable media transport link to or from each endpoint, the system comprising: an encoder which encodes transmitted media as frames in a threaded coding structure having a number of different frame types, the frames including a sequence of reference frames; a decoder which decodes received media based on reference frames therein; and a particular select subset of the frames in the threaded coding structure that is designated as a type (“R”) for reliable transport to the one or more receiving endpoint(s) over the more reliable transport link, wherein the subset of the frames of the type R is particularly selected to include at least the frames of the lowest temporal layer in the threaded coding structure and such that the decoder can decode at least a portion of the received media based on a reliably received frame of the type R after packet loss or error and thereafter is synchronized with the encoder, wherein reliable transport of the reference frames of the type R comprises retransmissions over the more reliable transport link based on a protocol of Acknowledgment (ACK) and/or No Acknowledgment (NACK) messages, and wherein the particular select subset of the frames that is designated as a type R for reliable transport to the decoder over the more reliable transport link comprises intra and inter macroblocks, and wherein the encoder further comprises a reliability and random access (RRC) module that recalculates the allocation of intra macroblocks in coding future frames in response to packet loss in or a new endpoint joining a current communication session.