Patent ID: 8804768

Claim:
An apparatus for transmitting a plurality of information signals in accordance with cyclic time-division multiplexing, comprising: an estimator configured to estimate, for each of the information signals, a data rate with which the information signal is most likely to be encoded within a time slice which follows a current time slice; a processor programmed to determine, for each of the information signals and on the basis of the estimated data rate, a relative waiting time which indicates an estimated starting time of a subsequent time slice of the information signal, and to integrate each of the determined relative waiting times, unmodified, in the current time slice of an associated information signal to transmit the determined relative waiting times to a receiver; and a time-slice structurer configured to assign an actual starting time to each of the following time slices on the basis of an actual data rate for the information signal, such that the actual data rate can deviate from a data rate estimated by the estimator, wherein the time-slice structurer is configured to assign the actual starting times such that each of the actual starting times of the subsequent time slices is larger than or equal to the respectively estimated starting time; the apparatus is configured to transmit the plurality of information signals in accordance with cyclic time-division multiplexing according to a statistical multiplex, and the time-slice structurer is configured to assign, the actual starting times and the actual data rates in accordance with the statistical multiplex; the estimator is configured to perform the estimation of the data rate for each of the plurality of information signals such that each of the plurality of information signals is most likely to be encoded within the time slice which follows the current time slice, using the respective estimated data rate; and the processor is configured to directly translate, for each of the plurality of information signals, the estimated data rate into the estimated starting time such that, if the data of each of the plurality of information signals does not change by more than a predetermined amount, the estimated starting time coincides with the actual starting time for each of the plurality of information signals; wherein the estimator is configured to estimate a data rate of an information signal for the following time slice at least on the basis of preceding and current actual data rates of the information signal.