Patent Publication Number: US-2018035326-A1

Title: Low-latency multimedia using dual wireless adapters

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/336,745 titled “LOW-LATENCY MULTIMEDIA USING DUAL WIRELESS ADAPTERS”, filed on Oct. 27, 2016, which claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application 62/367,930, titled “LOW-LATENCY MULTIMEDIA USING DUAL WIRELESS ADAPTERS”, which was filed on Jul. 28, 2016, the entire specifications of each of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Art 
     The disclosure relates to the field of multimedia computing devices, and more particularly to the field of wireless multimedia computing devices requiring low latency. 
     Discussion of the State of the Art 
     It is commonplace to stream various multimedia content to one or more devices from a single computing device. For example, a “smart TV” may operate LINUX™ (or a variant of LINUX™ such as ANDROID™) and may display high-definition video on the smart TV and stream various channels of audio to audio playback devices (some on the Smart TV and some separate from it). Or, a user of a mobile device may wish to watch a video on the device while having the audio streamed to and played back from a plurality of wireless speakers. In another example, a media computing device may operate using an operating system such as ANDROID™ but has no built-in user interface; rather, it serves virtual screens to mobile devices, each of which has a full operating system user interface that can interact wirelessly with the media computing device (which may be, for example, an HDMI “stick” that plugs into an HDMI port of a television). 
     In all of these use cases, low latency networking is a critical success factor. Even slight latency can cause synchronization problems, poor multimedia playback due to jitter or irregular playback speeds, and the like. For demanding low-latency applications where wireless networking is used, any means of reducing the latency brings immediate user-sensible benefits. 
     What is needed, then, is a means for providing reliable, very low-latency wireless networking, particularly for use with mobile devices, smart TVs, and wireless speakers. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, a system and various methods for low-latency multimedia using dual wireless adapters. The following non-limiting summary of the invention is provided for clarity, and should be construed consistently with embodiments described in the detailed description below. 
     To address the problem of low latency that was described above, dual wireless adapters are provided in a computing device. A first wireless adapter connects to a Wi-Fi access point (WAP) and acts as a member of a “normal” Wi-Fi network. Using the first wireless adapter, the computing device is able to access the Internet, for example to access one of the many media streaming services (e.g., NETFLIX™, HULU™, and the like). The second wireless adapter acts as a hotspot for direct connections to local devices that require low latency. Common examples of such devices are wireless speakers, mobile devices that host virtual screens of the computing device, and game controllers. By maintaining direct connections with these latency-sensitive devices (more accurately, the applications used on these devices tend to be latency-sensitive; for example, a degree of latency in streaming audio to a set of wireless speakers is easily detected by the human ear), the second wireless adapter can optimize the packet traffic going to these devices while also keeping all other unrelated traffic (which would be substantial on the first wireless adapter connected to the WAP), thereby minimizing latency to these devices to the maximum extent possible. 
     According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a computing device for low-latency multimedia using dual wireless adapters is disclosed, comprising a first wireless adapter connected to a Wi-Fi access point; a second wireless adapter connected directly to a plurality of wireless devices; and an operating system comprising programming instructions stored in the memory and operating on the processor and configured to: receive streaming multimedia via a wireless network from a media source, using the first wireless network adapter; and send at least a subset of the streaming multimedia at least one of the plurality of wireless devices using the second wireless network adapter. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES 
       The accompanying drawings illustrate several embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention according to the embodiments. It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that the particular embodiments illustrated in the drawings are merely exemplary, and are not to be considered as limiting of the scope of the invention or the claims herein in any way. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture for low-latency multimedia using dual wireless adapters, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating an alternate exemplary system architecture for low-latency multimedia using dual wireless adapters, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for low-latency multimedia using dual wireless adapters, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardware architecture of a computing device used in an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logical architecture for a client device, according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a block diagram showing an exemplary architectural arrangement of clients, servers, and external services, according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 7  is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardware architecture of a computing device used in various embodiments of the invention. 
         FIG. 8  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture for low-latency multimedia using dual wireless adapters, illustrating the use of a single hardware controller operating multiple radio antennas. 
         FIG. 9  is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for low-latency multimedia using dual wireless adapters, describing the use of multiple antennas to communicate on different radio channels or frequencies. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, computing device for low-latency multimedia using dual wireless adapters. 
     One or more different inventions may be described in the present application. Further, for one or more of the inventions described herein, numerous alternative embodiments may be described; it should be appreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only and are not limiting of the inventions contained herein or the claims presented herein in any way. One or more of the inventions may be widely applicable to numerous embodiments, as may be readily apparent from the disclosure. In general, embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of the inventions, and it should be appreciated that other embodiments may be utilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and other changes may be made without departing from the scope of the particular inventions. Accordingly, one skilled in the art will recognize that one or more of the inventions may be practiced with various modifications and alterations. Particular features of one or more of the inventions described herein may be described with reference to one or more particular embodiments or figures that form a part of the present disclosure, and in which are shown, by way of illustration, specific embodiments of one or more of the inventions. It should be appreciated, however, that such features are not limited to usage in the one or more particular embodiments or figures with reference to which they are described. The present disclosure is neither a literal description of all embodiments of one or more of the inventions nor a listing of features of one or more of the inventions that must be present in all embodiments. 
     Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the title of this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to be taken as limiting the disclosure in any way. 
     Devices that are in communication with each other need not be in continuous communication with each other, unless expressly specified otherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with each other may communicate directly or indirectly through one or more communication means or intermediaries, logical or physical. 
     A description of an embodiment with several components in communication with each other does not imply that all such components are required. To the contrary, a variety of optional components may be described to illustrate a wide variety of possible embodiments of one or more of the inventions and in order to more fully illustrate one or more aspects of the inventions. Similarly, although process steps, method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequential order, such processes, methods and algorithms may generally be configured to work in alternate orders, unless specifically stated to the contrary. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may be described in this patent application does not, in and of itself, indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. The steps of described processes may be performed in any order practical. Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite being described or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because one step is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of a process by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that the illustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modifications thereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its steps are necessary to one or more of the invention(s), and does not imply that the illustrated process is preferred. Also, steps are generally described once per embodiment, but this does not mean they must occur once, or that they may only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm is carried out or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some embodiments or some occurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in a given embodiment or occurrence. 
     When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of a single device or article. Similarly, where more than one device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a single device or article may be used in place of the more than one device or article. 
     The functionality or the features of a device may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly described as having such functionality or features. Thus, other embodiments of one or more of the inventions need not include the device itself. 
     Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimes be described in singular form for clarity. However, it should be appreciated that particular embodiments may include multiple iterations of a technique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless noted otherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should be understood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code which include one or more executable instructions for implementing specific logical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations are included within the scope of embodiments of the present invention in which, for example, functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understood by those having ordinary skill in the art. 
     Conceptual Architecture 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary computing device  100  capable of low-latency multimedia using dual wireless adapters, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. According to the embodiment, a computing device  100  typically comprises at least a memory  11  and a processor  12  (as described below, referring to  FIG. 4 ), configured to operate a software operating system, for example an operating system (OS)  120  drawn from the set including (but not limited to) ANDROID™, APPLE IOS™, WINDOWS™, and various forms of LINUX™. 
     According to the embodiment, computing device  100  may use a dual wireless adapter configuration to minimize latency for latency-sensitive applications. For example, according to the embodiment computing device  100  comprises a first wireless adapter  101   a  configured to connect wirelessly to a Wi-Fi access point (WAP)  112  or similar wireless radio communication, for example wireless adapter  101   a  may be configured to utilize a cellular wide-area network (WAN), and via the WAP to the Internet  110  to communicate with a plurality of multimedia streaming sources  111 . First wireless adapter  101   a  operates internally in a normal way, via a network stack of OS and in particular via transport layer  103 , network layer  102  and session layer  104 . 
     Further according to the embodiment, computing device  100  may further comprise a second wireless network adapter  101   b  that also interoperates via the OS network stack  102 . Second wireless adapter  101   b  may connect directly with a plurality of mobile devices  113   a - n  and a plurality of wireless audio playback devices  114   a - n . Second wireless adapter  101   b  therefore acts as a wireless hotspot connected to devices performing latency-sensitive applications. Computing device  100  may further comprise a media management subsystem  107  that manages media content. 
     According to the embodiment, a wide variety of hardware arrangements may be utilized to facilitate the operation of dual wireless network adapters  101   a ,  101   b . For example, a single wireless network hardware controller may operate multiple antennas, as is common in multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) hardware arrangements, as described in greater detail below (referring to  FIG. 8 ). This is commonly used to increase bandwidth and speed using multipath propagation or spatial multiplexing typically combined with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) or orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), but may also be used to communicate with multiple network hosts or endpoints (such as WAP  112  and a plurality of mobile devices  113   a - n , as described above) in a practice known as “multihoming”, for example by utilizing separate antennas to communicate on different wireless radio frequencies or channels. 
     Another exemplary arrangement may utilize multiple distinct wireless radios each with their own interface controller, for example as is commonly used in mobile device design for smartphones or tablets, or as in a personal computer with multiple network interface controllers (NICs), such as multiple WiFi hardware expansion cards. Mobile devices commonly utilize separate WiFi and cellular radio interfaces, allowing them to connect simultaneously to both local and wide-area networks as needed, for example to improve user experience by reducing network loss while in motion (for example, if a user moves out of range of a WiFi LAN to which they are connected, the mobile device may automatically switch to using a cellular WAN for the network session). When using multiple NICs, software operated by the operating system of the computing device  100  may process the different connections and optionally virtualize them into a single network by bridging the two connections internally for easier low-latency communication (for example, so that all network endpoints accessible via either NIC are visible to software simultaneously, without needing to select a particular NIC, network, or subnet). It should be appreciated that while reference may be made to particular hardware arrangements for multiple wireless adapters such arrangements are exemplary and provided to describe the overall function in a clear manner, and that a wide variety of arrangements and hardware combinations may be utilized according to the embodiments. 
     A third exemplary arrangement may be a wireless network interface controller (NIC) that operates a single wireless radio, that is configured to operate on multiple channels within a specific frequency band. This may be accomplished through a variety of multiple-access networking approaches, and enables the use of multiple channels on a single frequency band to communicate with different endpoints. For example, in an 802.11n WiFe network, all communication occurs in the nominal 2.4 GHz frequency band, but multiple channels are available. Utilizing more than one channel may enable a single NIC and radio to communicate independently with multiple access points, or with an access point and a plurality of devices on a different channel, or other complex network arrangements. 
     According to the embodiment, media management subsystem  107  may receive streaming media from first wireless adapter  101   a  via session layer  104 , and process the streaming media. Media management subsystem  107  may then identify a subset of the streaming media that is to be delivered wirelessly to latency-sensitive devices  113 ,  114 . The selected media subset may then be sent via session layer  104  and so forth to second wireless adapter  101   b , which then transmits the selected streaming media to one or more of mobile devices  113   a - n  and wireless audio playback devices  114   a - n . It will be appreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art that various arrangements of media streaming via second wireless adapter  101   b  are envisioned with the scope of the invention. For example, in one exemplary arrangement a high-definition video stream may be received along with several channels of audio; the high-definition video would be viewed on an HDMI display device  115  connected via an HDMI interface controlled by HDMI controller  108 , such as a television or computer monitor, while the audio channels would be either played (optionally) as native audio of computing device  100  and one or more wireless audio devices  114   a - n , each of which receives appropriate audio channels from media management subsystem  107  via second wireless adapter  101   b . In another exemplary arrangement, virtual screen driver  105  may operate a plurality of virtual (logical) interactive software interfaces (“virtual screens”) and may present at least a portion of these screens for interaction via the plurality of mobile devices  113   a - n  communicating via second wireless adapter  101   b.    
     The operating system of computing device  100  may generally have a “home screen” or similar primary environment that may be used by a user to interact with various hardware or software features and functions of computing device  100 . Alternatively, the OS may provide a plurality of logical desktops or other virtual screens to users via mobile devices  113   a - n . To facilitate user interaction, virtual screen driver  105  may listen for connections via a network or physical connection from a plurality of mobile devices  113   a - n  (such as, for example including but not limited to, a tablet computing device or smartphone), and may present a virtual screen derived from native OS graphics layer  106  to a device after connecting. A user may then interact with his mobile device normally using whatever means are available according to the particular configuration of the mobile device  113   a - n , and this interaction may be provided to virtual screen driver  105  for translation and delivery to the OS  120 . In this manner, media may be presented on an external display device  115  such as a high-definition television (the device of the invention typically being inserted into an HDMI port of the television, and controlling the television using HDMI controller  108 ), while users interact with an operating system via virtual screen driver  105 , allowing users to interact with software applications  109 . This allows users to perform actions such as installing programs, playing games, modifying media playback configurations, selecting media for presenting to external display device  115 , or performing administrative tasks. 
     It should be noted that, while HDMI is used in the example of  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 8  (below) and is discussed throughout, other similar media interfaces may be used in place of HDMI, according to the invention. For example, DISPLAYPORT™ interfaces may be used; in such embodiments, HDMI controller  108  and HDMI interface  115  would be instead a DISPLAYPORT™ controller  108  and a DISPLAYPORT™ interface  115 ; similarly, other newly emerging high-definition media interfaces may be used in various embodiments of the invention. It can be seen that in the arrangement of system  100 , dual wireless adapters may be used to allow a first wireless adapter  101   a  to manage Internet connectivity and non-latency-sensitive (or at least less critically latency-sensitive) network operations, while second wireless adapter  101   b  acts as a low-latency hotspot for directly connected latency-sensitive devices  113   a - n ,  114   a - n.    
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating an alternate computing device (for example, a “smart TV”)  200 , according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. According to the embodiment, computing device  200  typically comprises at least a memory  11  and a processor  12  (as described below, referring to  FIG. 4 ), configured to operate a software operating system, for example an operating system (OS) drawn from the set including (but not limited to) ANDROID™, APPLE IOS™, WINDOWS™, and various forms of LINUX™. According to the embodiment, computing device  200  uses a dual wireless adapter configuration to minimize latency for latency-sensitive applications. Specifically, according to the embodiment computing device  200  comprises a first wireless adapter  201   a  that connects wirelessly to a Wi-Fi access point (WAP)  222  and via WAP  222  to the Internet  220  and one or more multimedia streaming service sources  221 . First wireless adapter  201   a  operates internally in a normal way, via a network stack of OS and in particular via transport layer  204 , network layer  203  and session layer  205 . 
     According to the embodiment, computing device  200  further comprises a second wireless network adapter  201   b  that also interoperates via the OS network stack  203 . Second wireless adapter  201   b  may connect directly with a plurality of mobile devices  224   a - n  and a plurality of wireless audio playback devices  223   a - n . Second wireless adapter  201   b  therefore acts as a wireless hotspot connected to devices performing latency-sensitive applications. Computing device  200  may further comprise a media management subsystem  207  that manages media content. According to some embodiments, media management subsystem  207  receives streaming media from first wireless adapter  201   a  via session layer  205 , and processes the streaming media. In one aspect, media management subsystem  207  identifies a subset of the streaming media that is to be delivered wirelessly to latency-sensitive devices  223   a - n ,  224   a - n . The selected media subset may then be sent via session layer  205  and so forth to second wireless adapter  201   b , which then transmits the selected streaming media to one or more of mobile devices  224   a - n  and wireless audio playback devices  223   a - n.    
     It will be appreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art that various arrangements of media streaming via second wireless adapter  201   b  are envisioned with the scope of the invention. For example, in one exemplary arrangement a high-definition video stream may be received along with several channels of audio; the high-definition video would be viewed on a local high-definition display  210  connected to the OS via high-definition display driver  209 , while the audio channels would be either played (optionally) as native audio of computing device  200  or one or more wireless audio devices  223   a - n , each of which receives appropriate audio channels from media management subsystem  207  via second wireless adapter  201   b . In another aspect, virtual screen driver  206  may operate a plurality of virtual (logical) interactive software interfaces (“virtual screens”) and may present at least a portion of these screens for interaction via the plurality of mobile devices  224   a - n  communicating via second wireless adapter  201   b . The operating system of computing device  200  may generally have a “home screen” or similar primary environment that may be used by a user to interact with various hardware or software features and functions of computing device  200 . Alternatively, the OS may provide a plurality of logical desktops or other virtual screens to users via mobile devices  224   a - n.    
     To facilitate user interaction, virtual screen driver  206  may listen for connections via a network or physical connection from a plurality of mobile devices  224   a - n  (such as, for example including but not limited to, a tablet computing device or smartphone), and may present a virtual screen derived from native OS graphics layer  208  to a device after connecting. A user may then interact with his mobile device normally using whatever means are available according to the particular configuration of the mobile device, and this interaction may be provided to virtual screen driver  206  for translation and delivery to the OS. In this manner, media may be presented on a local high-definition display device  210 , while users interact with an operating system via virtual screen driver  206 , allowing users to interact with software applications. This allows users to perform actions such as installing programs, playing games, modifying media playback configurations, selecting media for presenting to local display device  210 , or performing administrative tasks. 
       FIG. 8  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture for low-latency multimedia using dual wireless adapters, illustrating the use of a single hardware controller operating multiple radio antennas. According to the embodiment, a computing device  800  typically comprises at least a memory  11  and a processor  12  (as described below, referring to  FIG. 4 ), configured to operate a software operating system, for example an operating system (OS) drawn from the set including (but not limited to) ANDROID™, APPLE IOS™, WINDOWS™, and various forms of LINUX™. 
     According to the embodiment, computing device  800  may use a dual wireless antenna configuration with a single network interface controller to minimize latency for latency-sensitive applications. For example, according to the embodiment computing device  800  comprises a first wireless antenna  801   a  operated by a NIC  801  configured to connect wirelessly to a Wi-Fi access point (WAP)  112  or similar wireless radio communication, for example wireless antenna  801   a  may be configured to utilize a cellular wide-area network (WAN), and via the WAP to the Internet  110  to communicate with a plurality of multimedia streaming sources  111 . First wireless antenna  801   a  operates internally in a normal way, via a network stack of OS and in particular via transport layer  803 , network layer  802  and session layer  804 . 
     Further according to the embodiment, computing device  800  may further comprise a second wireless network antenna  801   b  that is also operated by NIC  801  and also interoperates via the OS network stack. Second wireless antenna  801   b  may connect directly with a plurality of mobile devices  113   a - n  and a plurality of wireless audio playback devices  114   a - n . Second wireless antenna  801   b  therefore acts as a wireless hotspot connected to devices performing latency-sensitive applications. Computing device  800  may further comprise a media management subsystem  807  that manages media content. 
     According to the embodiment, media management subsystem  807  may receive streaming media from first wireless antenna  801   a  via NIC  801  and session layer  804 , and process the streaming media. Media management subsystem  807  may then identify a subset of the streaming media that is to be delivered wirelessly to latency-sensitive devices  113 ,  114 . The selected media subset may then be sent via session layer  804  and so forth to second wireless antenna  801   b , which then transmits the selected streaming media to one or more of mobile devices  113   a - n  and wireless audio playback devices  114   a - n . It will be appreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art that various arrangements of media streaming via second wireless antenna  801   b  are envisioned with the scope of the invention. For example, in one exemplary arrangement a high-definition video stream may be received along with several channels of audio; the high-definition video would be viewed on an HDMI display device  115  connected via an HDMI interface controlled by HDMI controller  808 , such as a television or computer monitor, while the audio channels would be either played (optionally) as native audio of computing device  800  and one or more wireless audio devices  114   a - n , each of which receives appropriate audio channels from media management subsystem  107  via second wireless antenna  801   b . In another exemplary arrangement, virtual screen driver  805  may operate a plurality of virtual (logical) interactive software interfaces (“virtual screens”) and may present at least a portion of these screens for interaction via the plurality of mobile devices  113   a - n  communicating via second wireless antenna  801   b.    
     The operating system of computing device  800  may generally have a “home screen” or similar primary environment that may be used by a user to interact with various hardware or software features and functions of computing device  800 . Alternatively, the OS may provide a plurality of logical desktops or other virtual screens to users via mobile devices  113   a - n . To facilitate user interaction, virtual screen driver  805  may listen for connections via a network or physical connection from a plurality of mobile devices  113   a - n  (such as, for example including but not limited to, a tablet computing device or smartphone), and may present a virtual screen derived from native OS graphics layer  806  to a device after connecting. A user may then interact with his mobile device normally using whatever means are available according to the particular configuration of the mobile device  113   a - n , and this interaction may be provided to virtual screen driver  805  for translation and delivery to the OS. In this manner, media may be presented on an external display device  115  such as a high-definition television (the device of the invention typically being inserted into an HDMI port of the television, and controlling the television using HDMI controller  808 ), while users interact with an operating system via virtual screen driver  805 , allowing users to interact with software applications  809 . This allows users to perform actions such as installing programs, playing games, modifying media playback configurations, selecting media for presenting to external display device  115 , or performing administrative tasks. 
     Description of Method Embodiments 
       FIG. 3  shows a method  300  for low-latency multimedia using a computing device having dual wireless adapters, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. In a first step  301 , a streaming multimedia session is established using the first wireless network adapter  101   a / 201   a . The streaming media may be obtained from a network-resident media source  111 / 221 , and is transmitted via a wireless access point  112 / 222  to which the first wireless adapter  101   a / 201   a  is connected. In a second step  302 , streaming media content for the session is received at the first wireless network adapter  101   a / 201   a  and passed to the transport layer  103 / 204  of the operating system. In a third step  303 , at least a portion of the streamed multimedia content is sent by the transport layer  103 / 204  to the second wireless adapter  101   b / 201   b , which then, in a fourth step  304  transmits the media content to one or more of the mobile devices  113 / 224  or wireless audio playback devices  114 / 223  via the direct wireless connections it maintains with those devices. 
       FIG. 9  is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method  900  for low-latency multimedia using dual wireless adapters, describing the use of multiple antennas to communicate on different radio channels or frequencies. In a first step  901 , a streaming multimedia session is established by a network interface controller (NIC)  801  using a first wireless network antenna  801   a . The streaming media may be obtained from a network-resident media source  111 / 221 , and is transmitted via a wireless access point  112 / 222  to which the first wireless antenna  801   a  is connected. In a second step  902 , streaming media content for the session is received at the first wireless network antenna  801   a  and passed to the transport layer  103 / 204 / 803  of the operating system. In a third step  903 , at least a portion of the streamed multimedia content is sent by the transport layer  103 / 204 / 803  to the NIC  801  along with instructions to utilize a different wireless radio frequency (for example, a different WiFi channel or band), to be transmitted via second wireless antenna  801   b , which then, in a fourth step  904  transmits the media content to one or more of the mobile devices  113 / 224  or wireless audio playback devices  114 / 223  via the direct wireless connections it maintains with those devices on a separate radio frequency from the streaming session established via the first wireless network antenna  801   a.    
     Hardware Architecture 
     Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented on hardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, they may be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate user process, in a library package bound into network applications, on a specially constructed machine, on an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card. 
     Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on a programmable network-resident machine (which should be understood to include intermittently connected network-aware machines) selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in memory. Such network devices may have multiple network interfaces that may be configured or designed to utilize different types of network communication protocols. A general architecture for some of these machines may be described herein in order to illustrate one or more exemplary means by which a given unit of functionality may be implemented. According to specific embodiments, at least some of the features or functionalities of the various embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on one or more general-purpose computers associated with one or more networks, such as for example an end-user computer system, a client computer, a network server or other server system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tablet computing device, mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, or other appropriate computing device), a consumer electronic device, a music player, or any other suitable electronic device, router, switch, or other suitable device, or any combination thereof. In at least some embodiments, at least some of the features or functionalities of the various embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented in one or more virtualized computing environments (e.g., network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted on one or more physical computing machines, or other appropriate virtual environments). 
     Referring now to  FIG. 4 , there is shown a block diagram depicting an exemplary computing device  10  suitable for implementing at least a portion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computing device  10  may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listed in the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capable of executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to one or more programs stored in memory. Computing device  10  may be configured to communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such as clients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide area network a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wireless network, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols for such communication, whether wireless or wired. 
     In one embodiment, computing device  10  includes one or more central processing units (CPU)  12 , one or more interfaces  15 , and one or more busses  14  (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). When acting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU  12  may be responsible for implementing specific functions associated with the functions of a specifically configured computing device or machine. For example, in at least one embodiment, a computing device  10  may be configured or designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU  12 , local memory  11  and/or remote memory  16 , and interface(s)  15 . In at least one embodiment, CPU  12  may be caused to perform one or more of the different types of functions and/or operations under the control of software modules or components, which for example, may include an operating system and any appropriate applications software, drivers, and the like. 
     CPU  12  may include one or more processors  13  such as, for example, a processor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families of microprocessors. In some embodiments, processors  13  may include specially designed hardware such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, for controlling operations of computing device  10 . In a specific embodiment, a local memory  11  (such as non-volatile random access memory (RAM) and/or read-only memory (ROM), including for example one or more levels of cached memory) may also form part of CPU  12 . However, there are many different ways in which memory may be coupled to system  10 . Memory  11  may be used for a variety of purposes such as, for example, caching and/or storing data, programming instructions, and the like. It should be further appreciated that CPU  12  may be one of a variety of system-on-a-chip (SOC) type hardware that may include additional hardware such as memory or graphics processing chips, such as a QUALCOMM SNAPDRAGON™ or SAMSUNG EXYNOS™ CPU as are becoming increasingly common in the art, such as for use in mobile devices or integrated devices. 
     As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to those integrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobile processor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller, a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, an application-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmable circuit. 
     In one embodiment, interfaces  15  are provided as network interface cards (NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of data packets over a computer network; other types of interfaces  15  may for example support other peripherals used with computing device  10 . Among the interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relay interfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces, graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types of interfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus (USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, THUNDERBOLT™, PCI, parallel, radio frequency (RF), BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., using near-field magnetics), 802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fast Ethernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, Serial ATA (SATA) or external SATA (ESATA) interfaces, high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI), digital visual interface (DVI), analog or digital audio interfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces, high-speed serial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale (POS) interfaces, fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), and the like. Generally, such interfaces  15  may include physical ports appropriate for communication with appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include an independent processor (such as a dedicated audio or video processor, as is common in the art for high-fidelity AN hardware interfaces) and, in some instances, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM). 
     Although the system shown in  FIG. 4  illustrates one specific architecture for a computing device  10  for implementing one or more of the inventions described herein, it is by no means the only device architecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniques described herein may be implemented. For example, architectures having one or any number of processors  13  may be used, and such processors  13  may be present in a single device or distributed among any number of devices. In one embodiment, a single processor  13  handles communications as well as routing computations, while in other embodiments a separate dedicated communications processor may be provided. In various embodiments, different types of features or functionalities may be implemented in a system according to the invention that includes a client device (such as a tablet device or smartphone running client software) and server systems (such as a server system described in more detail below). 
     Regardless of network device configuration, the system of the present invention may employ one or more memories or memory modules (such as, for example, remote memory block  16  and local memory  11 ) configured to store data, program instructions for the general-purpose network operations, or other information relating to the functionality of the embodiments described herein (or any combinations of the above). Program instructions may control execution of or comprise an operating system and/or one or more applications, for example. Memory  16  or memories  11 ,  16  may also be configured to store data structures, configuration data, encryption data, historical system operations information, or any other specific or generic non-program information described herein. 
     Because such information and program instructions may be employed to implement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least some network device embodiments may include nontransitory machine-readable storage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed to store program instructions, state information, and the like for performing various operations described herein. Examples of such nontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are not limited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical media such as optical disks, and hardware devices that are specially configured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-only memory devices (ROM), flash memory (as is common in mobile devices and integrated systems), solid state drives (SSD) and “hybrid SSD” storage drives that may combine physical components of solid state and hard disk drives in a single hardware device (as are becoming increasingly common in the art with regard to personal computers), memristor memory, random access memory (RAM), and the like. It should be appreciated that such storage means may be integral and non-removable (such as RAM hardware modules that may be soldered onto a motherboard or otherwise integrated into an electronic device), or they may be removable such as swappable flash memory modules (such as “thumb drives” or other removable media designed for rapidly exchanging physical storage devices), “hot-swappable” hard disk drives or solid state drives, removable optical storage discs, or other such removable media, and that such integral and removable storage media may be utilized interchangeably. Examples of program instructions include both object code, such as may be produced by a compiler, machine code, such as may be produced by an assembler or a linker, byte code, such as may be generated by for example a JAVA™ compiler and may be executed using a Java virtual machine or equivalent, or files containing higher level code that may be executed by the computer using an interpreter (for example, scripts written in Python, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language). 
     In some embodiments, systems according to the present invention may be implemented on a standalone computing system. Referring now to  FIG. 5 , there is shown a block diagram depicting a typical exemplary architecture of one or more embodiments or components thereof on a standalone computing system. Computing device  20  includes processors  21  that may run software that carry out one or more functions or applications of embodiments of the invention, such as for example a client application  24 . Processors  21  may carry out computing instructions under control of an operating system  22  such as, for example, a version of MICROSOFT WINDOWS™ operating system, APPLE OSX™ or iOS™ operating systems, some variety of the Linux operating system, ANDROID™ operating system, or the like. In many cases, one or more shared services  23  may be operable in system  20 , and may be useful for providing common services to client applications  24 . Services  23  may for example be WINDOWS™ services, user-space common services in a Linux environment, or any other type of common service architecture used with operating system  21 . Input devices  28  may be of any type suitable for receiving user input, including for example a keyboard, touchscreen, microphone (for example, for voice input), mouse, touchpad, trackball, or any combination thereof. Output devices  27  may be of any type suitable for providing output to one or more users, whether remote or local to system  20 , and may include for example one or more screens for visual output, speakers, printers, or any combination thereof. Memory  25  may be random-access memory having any structure and architecture known in the art, for use by processors  21 , for example to run software. Storage devices  26  may be any magnetic, optical, mechanical, memristor, or electrical storage device for storage of data in digital form (such as those described above, referring to  FIG. 4 ). Examples of storage devices  26  include flash memory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or the like. 
     In some embodiments, systems of the present invention may be implemented on a distributed computing network, such as one having any number of clients and/or servers. Referring now to  FIG. 6 , there is shown a block diagram depicting an exemplary architecture  30  for implementing at least a portion of a system according to an embodiment of the invention on a distributed computing network. According to the embodiment, any number of clients  33  may be provided. Each client  33  may run software for implementing client-side portions of the present invention; clients may comprise a system  20  such as that illustrated in  FIG. 5 . In addition, any number of servers  32  may be provided for handling requests received from one or more clients  33 . Clients  33  and servers  32  may communicate with one another via one or more electronic networks  31 , which may be in various embodiments any of the Internet, a wide area network, a mobile telephony network (such as CDMA or GSM cellular networks), a wireless network (such as WiFi, WiMAX, LTE, and so forth), or a local area network (or indeed any network topology known in the art; the invention does not prefer any one network topology over any other). Networks  31  may be implemented using any known network protocols, including for example wired and/or wireless protocols. 
     In addition, in some embodiments, servers  32  may call external services  37  when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer to additional data concerning a particular call. Communications with external services  37  may take place, for example, via one or more networks  31 . In various embodiments, external services  37  may comprise web-enabled services or functionality related to or installed on the hardware device itself. For example, in an embodiment where client applications  24  are implemented on a smartphone or other electronic device, client applications  24  may obtain information stored in a server system  32  in the cloud or on an external service  37  deployed on one or more of a particular enterprise&#39;s or user&#39;s premises. 
     In some embodiments of the invention, clients  33  or servers  32  (or both) may make use of one or more specialized services or appliances that may be deployed locally or remotely across one or more networks  31 . For example, one or more databases  34  may be used or referred to by one or more embodiments of the invention. It should be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art that databases  34  may be arranged in a wide variety of architectures and using a wide variety of data access and manipulation means. For example, in various embodiments one or more databases  34  may comprise a relational database system using a structured query language (SQL), while others may comprise an alternative data storage technology such as those referred to in the art as “NoSQL” (for example, HADOOP CASSANDRA™, GOOGLE BIGTABLE™, and so forth). In some embodiments, variant database architectures such as column-oriented databases, in-memory databases, clustered databases, distributed databases, or even flat file data repositories may be used according to the invention. It will be appreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art that any combination of known or future database technologies may be used as appropriate, unless a specific database technology or a specific arrangement of components is specified for a particular embodiment herein. Moreover, it should be appreciated that the term “database” as used herein may refer to a physical database machine, a cluster of machines acting as a single database system, or a logical database within an overall database management system. Unless a specific meaning is specified for a given use of the term “database”, it should be construed to mean any of these senses of the word, all of which are understood as a plain meaning of the term “database” by those having ordinary skill in the art. 
     Similarly, most embodiments of the invention may make use of one or more security systems  36  and configuration systems  35 . Security and configuration management are common information technology (IT) and web functions, and some amount of each are generally associated with any IT or web systems. It should be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art that any configuration or security subsystems known in the art now or in the future may be used in conjunction with embodiments of the invention without limitation, unless a specific security  36  or configuration system  35  or approach is specifically required by the description of any specific embodiment. 
       FIG. 7  shows an exemplary overview of a computer system  40  as may be used in any of the various locations throughout the system. It is exemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Various modifications and changes may be made to computer system  40  without departing from the broader scope of the system and method disclosed herein. Central processor unit (CPU)  41  is connected to bus  42 , to which bus is also connected memory  43 , nonvolatile memory  44 , display  47 , input/output (I/O) unit  48 , and network interface card (NIC)  53 . I/O unit  48  may, typically, be connected to keyboard  49 , pointing device  50 , hard disk  52 , and real-time clock  51 . NIC  53  connects to network  54 , which may be the Internet or a local network, which local network may or may not have connections to the Internet. Also shown as part of system  40  is power supply unit  45  connected, in this example, to a main alternating current (AC) supply  46 . Not shown are batteries that could be present, and many other devices and modifications that are well known but are not applicable to the specific novel functions of the current system and method disclosed herein. It should be appreciated that some or all components illustrated may be combined, such as in various integrated applications, for example Qualcomm or Samsung system-on-a-chip (SOC) devices, or whenever it may be appropriate to combine multiple capabilities or functions into a single hardware device (for instance, in mobile devices such as smartphones, video game consoles, in-vehicle computer systems such as navigation or multimedia systems in automobiles, or other integrated hardware devices). 
     In various embodiments, functionality for implementing systems or methods of the present invention may be distributed among any number of client and/or server components. For example, various software modules may be implemented for performing various functions in connection with the present invention, and such modules may be variously implemented to run on server and/or client components. 
     The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications of the various embodiments described above. Accordingly, the present invention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.