Patent ID: 7948886
Filing Date: 2011-05-24
Classification: H04L,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A transmission bit rate control mechanism for a packet-based communication system, wherein the communication system comprises: a sender that transmits packet data at a certain transmission bit rate that can vary over time; a receiver that receives transmitted packet data from the sender; and a packet-based communication network that provides a communication path between the sender and the receiver; and wherein the transmission bit rate mechanism comprises: a receiver recording mechanism which receives transmission time information included in the transmitted packets by the sender, and computes and records statistical parameters of the received packets and communicates the computed and recorded statistical parameters to the sender over the communication network; and a sender processing mechanism which selectively computes a new transmission bit rate using the received recorded statistical parameters; wherein the receiver recording mechanism is configured to record estimates of packet inter-arrival jitter; wherein the sender processing mechanism is configured to selectively compute a new transmission bit rate by: computing an estimate of the packet inter-arrival jitter over a given time period; comparing the packet inter-arrival jitter estimate with a threshold; and if the threshold is exceeded, setting the transmission bit rate to a fraction of the current transmission bit rate, the fraction being equal to the ratio of the jitter estimate to the time period.