Patent ID: 6252990
Filing Date: 2001-06-26
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
A multiplex data transmission system for transmitting coded data signals over a plurality of channels comprising:N data signal encoding devices;a data input signal source connected to each of the N encoding devices;the encoding devices each being operative to encode incoming data signals at a selected bit rate sufficiently high to avoid data loss upon subsequent decoding, and to generate a coded data signal;M transmitting devices, M being greater than 1 but less than N, each transmitting device having a predetermined data transmission bit rate;a multiplexing device having N inputs respectively receiving the coded data signal from one of the encoding devices, and M outputs respectively providing an input to one of the transmitting devices, the multiplexing device being operative to sample M distinct sub-groups of the N coded input signals, to generate a multiplexed output data string for each of the M sub-groups and to couple the M multiplexed data strings respectively as inputs to the M transmitting devices; anda controller for the multiplexing device, the controller being operative to allocate the N coded input signals to the M sub-groups such that the sum of the individual encoding bit rates for the coded data signals allocated to a sub-group is optimized relative to the data transmission bit rate for the associated transmitting device.