Patent ID: 8594044

Claim:
A wireless communication apparatus comprising: a wireless communication unit operable to perform wireless communication by connecting to a first wireless communication network and a second wireless communication network different from the first wireless communication network; an execution unit comprising a jitter buffer operable to absorb jitter of data received and a jitter buffer monitoring unit operable to monitor an amount of data in the jitter buffer, and operable to execute an application for real-time communication via the wireless communication unit; a communication quality obtaining unit operable to obtain communication quality of a wireless link of the first wireless communication network during execution of the application by connecting to the first wireless communication network; a determination unit operable to determine whether to start preparing handover from the first wireless communication network to the second wireless communication network based on the communication quality obtained by the communication quality obtaining unit; an estimation unit operable, when the determination unit determines to start handover preparation during execution of the application, to estimate a handover preparation time to start handover based on the communication quality obtained by the communication quality obtaining unit; a measuring unit operable, when the determination unit determines to start handover preparation, to receive data via the first wireless communication network and the second wireless communication network separately and to measure a delay time difference between the first wireless communication network and the second wireless communication network based on reception times of the same data received; a control unit operable to control a reproduction speed of the application by the execution unit based on the handover preparation time estimated by the estimation unit, the delay time difference measured by the measuring unit, and an amount of data in the jitter buffer monitored by the jitter buffer monitoring unit at a time when the determination unit determines to start handover preparation; and a jitter buffer control unit, wherein the jitter buffer and jitter monitoring unit are operable to communicate with a reproduction speed calculation unit that is operable to calculate a reproduction speed V using the following formula, and to provide the calculated reproduction speed V to the jitter buffer control unit: V =( Tb+T 1× V 1)/( T 1+ T 2), where: Tb is a time that corresponds to a number of packets in the jitter buffer at the start of handover preparation; T 1 is a handover preparation time; V 1 is a standard reproduction speed; and T 2 is a time delay difference between the first wireless communication network and the second wireless communication network.