JP2007006376A - Media concentration control system and media concentration gateway - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a media concentration control system for controlling the transfer of media information based on priority when collecting media information. <P>SOLUTION: This media concentration control system is provided with media information providing devices 101 to 108 for providing media information, a media information display device 142 for reproducing and displaying the media information and media concentration gateways 111 to 114, 121 and 122 for transferring media information among the devices through a network. The media concentration gateways 111 to 114, 121 and 122 are provided with a media information receiving means 208 for receiving media information, a transfer control means 209 for controlling the transfer of the media information and a media information transmitting means 211 for transferring the media information through the network according to control by the transfer control means 209. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a media concentration control system that collects a large amount of media information via a network, and more particularly to a media concentration control system that controls transfer of media information based on priority and a media concentration gateway used therefor. It is.

  An example of a system that collects a large amount of media information by transmitting it to the center via a network is a remote monitoring system. The media information handled by such a remote monitoring system includes data such as numerical values, sounds, and images captured by sensors, microphones, cameras, etc. of monitoring devices installed at many monitoring target points.

  However, multimedia data such as audio and video is large in volume, and if media information from all monitoring devices is transmitted and collected, the network on the collecting side is overloaded, and media information There are concerns about omissions and waste of acquisition time. Also, there are several to several tens of voices and videos that can be simultaneously identified by the administrator on the display terminal on the monitoring station side, and transmission of other media information is useless traffic.

  As a conventional remote monitoring system for solving such a problem, there is one disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example. This system schedules a time period during which each monitoring device transmits media information, and executes transmission and reception of media information based on the schedule. In this system, a connection control device is provided on each of the monitoring device side and the monitoring station side, and the connection control device on the monitoring device side can be connected to a plurality of monitoring devices, and media based on the transmission time zone of each monitoring device. Information is multiplexed in time division and transmitted. Thereby, the amount of media information received on the monitoring station side can be controlled.

  Further, this transmission time zone is determined by each connection control device on the monitoring device side and the connection control device on the monitoring station side. When a transmission time zone conflict is detected, the connection control device on the monitoring station side sends an instruction to change the transmission time zone to each connection control device on the monitoring device side, and each connection control device transmits the transmission time zone as instructed. Update.

  As described above, in the system disclosed in Patent Document 1, scheduling of the transmission time zone is performed, and the amount of media information transmitted to the monitoring station side is limited, thereby reducing unnecessary traffic and effectively using network resources. Realized.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-298777

  In the conventional system, even if the amount of media information is limited to a range that can be identified by the administrator of the monitoring station, if the limited media information is only information that is not important to the administrator, the transmission of the media information will eventually be performed. This is wasted traffic and the network cannot be used effectively. Conversely, important media information may be discarded.

  Further, as important media information in the monitoring system, there is information having urgency, for example, and immediacy is required in many cases. At this time, if the monitoring device is several tens of small monitoring systems, it may be possible for the control device on the monitoring station side to perform contention resolution in the transmission time zone of all media information. However, in a large-scale monitoring system having thousands of monitoring devices, the number of times of media information transmission time competition increases and there are many monitoring devices to be controlled. It is considered difficult to maintain immediacy while performing conflict resolution.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. In collecting media information, a media concentration control system for controlling the transfer of media information based on priority and the media concentration used in the same. The purpose is to obtain a gateway.

  In the media concentration control system according to the present invention, a media information providing apparatus that provides media information, a media information display apparatus that reproduces and displays media information, and a media collection that relays exchange of media information between apparatuses via a network. In the media concentration control system comprising the communication gateway, the media concentration gateway includes a media information receiving means for receiving the media information, a transfer control means for controlling the transfer of the media information, and a network according to the control by the transfer control means. Media information transmission means for transferring media information via the network.

  According to the present invention, even in a system in which a large number of media information is collected, there is an effect that the transfer of media information can be controlled based on the priority in the collection.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of a media concentration control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, and a case where the present invention is applied to a remote monitoring system is taken as an example. The media information providing devices 101 to 108 function as a monitoring device such as a camera with a sensor, and transmit video and audio as media information to the media concentration gateways 111 to 114 via a network. The media concentrator gateways 111 to 114 transfer the media information to the media concentrator gateways 121 to 122 on the media information display device 142 side via the network. As described above, the system according to the present invention forms a hierarchical network topology with a plurality of media concentration gateways, and transfers a large amount of media information from the media information providing apparatuses 101 to 108 to the media information display apparatus 142 while controlling the enormous media information. To do.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the media concentration gateway in FIG. The media concentrator gateway 202 according to the first embodiment corresponds to the media concentrator gateways 121 to 122 shown in FIG. 1, and as shown in FIG. 2, the media information providing device 101 that is a monitoring device via a network. ˜108 side media concentrator gateway 201 and media information display device 142 side media concentrator gateway 203 for providing media information to the administrator.

  The media concentrator gateway 202 includes a transmission source management unit 204, a transmission destination management unit 205, a priority policy setting unit 206, a transmission right distribution unit 207, a media information reception unit 208, a transfer control unit 209, and a transmission right allocation unit 210. , Media information transmission means 211, transmission right transfer means 215, transmission right request means 216, transmission right assignment request means 217, transmission right deletion means 218, transcoding means 219, and media information storage means 220.

  The transmission source management means 204 has address information of a lower level (media information providing apparatus side) media concentration gateway connected to its own gateway via the network, and manages it as transmission source information. The transmission destination management unit 205 has address information of a higher level (media information display device side) media concentrating gateway connected to its own gateway via the network, and manages it as transmission destination information. As address information, for example, when a media information providing apparatus and a media concentrating gateway are connected by an IP network, there are their IP address and connection port number.

  The priority policy setting unit 206 sets the priority policy notified from the policy server 141 in the transmission right distribution unit 207, and also assigns the priority policy to the lower media concentration gateway 201 and the media information providing apparatus via the network. Notice. A priority policy is a high priority for a specific media concentrator gateway, depending on the importance of the media information provided by the media information provider such as the monitored area and its scope, the monitoring time zone, and the monitoring target. This rule defines the priority given to each media concentrator gateway.

  The transmission right distribution unit 207 acquires from the transmission source management unit 204 the address information of the media collection gateway on the media information providing apparatus side connected to the gateway through the network, and based on this address information, the priority policy setting unit The transmission right corresponding to the priority policy set from 206 is distributed to the media concentration gateway on the media information providing apparatus side. Further, the number of transmission rights to be distributed to each media concentrating gateway is determined based on the number of media that can be reproduced by the media information display device 142 or the communication bandwidth that can be received. The media information receiving unit 208 receives media information and its priority information from the media information providing apparatus via the network and the lower media concentrating gateway and transmits them to the transfer control unit 209.

  The transfer control unit 209 transmits the media information to which the transmission right is assigned by the transmission right assignment unit 210 to the media information transmission unit 211 and transfers only the media information to which the transmission right is assigned to the upper media concentrating gateway side. Control. The transmission right assigning unit 210 assigns a transmission right to the media information received by the media information receiving unit 208 via the lower media concentration gateway according to the priority. That is, the communication band is distributed by the number of transmission rights set in advance according to the priority. Further, media information to which no transmission right is assigned is not output to the media information transmission unit 211. The media information transmission unit 211 transmits the media information to which priority information is given to the higher-level media concentrating gateway using the destination address information acquired from the transmission destination management unit 205.

  The transmission right transfer means 215 is a component that moves the transmission right between the media concentration gateways in order to appropriately assign a certain number of transmission rights at each media concentration gateway. The transmission right request means 216, the transmission right transfer request It comprises means 217 and transmission right deletion means 218. If there is no transmission right assigned by the transmission right assignment unit 210, the transmission right request unit 216 requests the transmission right from the destination media concentrating gateway. Upon receiving the transmission right request from the lower media concentration gateway, the transmission right assignment request unit 217 assigns the transmission right assigned to the low-priority media information transmitted from the upper media concentration gateway. To the higher-level media concentrator gateway. When the transmission right deletion means 218 receives the transmission right transfer request from the lower media concentration gateway, it deletes the transmission right of the media information related to the request.

  The transcoding means 219 has a function of transcoding media information and controlling the amount of encoding, and transcodes the media information transmitted from the transfer control means 209 according to the capacity of media information and the number of transmission rights. Send back. The media information storage unit 220 has a function of holding media information for displaying on-demand media information that has not been displayed on the media information display device 142 or media information to be replayed, such as a hard disk in its own gateway. Media information is stored in the storage device or output to the transfer control means 209 in response to a transmission request.

  In addition, a transmission source management unit 204, a transmission destination management unit 205, a priority policy setting unit 206, a transmission right distribution unit 207, a media information reception unit 208, a transfer control unit 209, a transmission right, which are components of the media concentration gateway. The allocation unit 210, the media information transmission unit 211, the transmission right transfer unit 215, the transmission right request unit 216, the transmission right transfer request unit 217, the transmission right deletion unit 218, the transcoding unit 219, and the media information storage unit 220 are included in the present invention. By reading a media concentration control program according to the purpose into a computer and controlling its operation, it can be realized as a specific means in which software and hardware cooperate on the computer. Note that the configuration of the computer itself and its basic functions can be easily recognized by those skilled in the art based on the common general technical knowledge in the technical field, and are not directly related to the essence of the present invention, so detailed description thereof is omitted. To do.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the media information providing apparatus in FIG. 1, and a monitoring apparatus using a camera with a sensor is taken as an example. The media information providing apparatus 301 according to the illustrated example is connected to the media concentrating gateway 302 on the media information display apparatus side via a network, and transmits to a destination management unit 303, a priority policy setting unit 304, a sensor 305, and a priority notification unit. 306, media information transmission means 307, and video / audio information input device 308.

  The destination management means 303 has address information of the media concentrating gateway 302 of the host (media information display device side) connected to the own device via the network, and manages it as destination information. The address information includes, for example, the IP address and connection port number when connecting to the media concentrator gateway via the IP network. The priority policy setting unit 304 sets the priority policy notified from the policy server 141 via the media concentration gateway 302 in the priority notification unit 306.

  The sensor 305 detects sensor information constituting the media information and outputs it to the priority notification means 306. For example, a physical sensor that senses sound, light, temperature, vibration, smell, or the like, or a sensor that extracts the amount of movement of a subject can be considered. The priority notification unit 306 determines the priority of the media information output by the own device based on the priority policy set by the priority policy setting unit 304 and transmits the priority to the media information transmission unit 307 as priority information.

  The priority notification means 306 has a function of determining whether or not the sensor information from the sensor 305 should be urgently communicated to the administrator, and determining the importance according to the information content. When it is determined that the information should be information or information with high importance, priority corresponding to the information is set for the media information based on the sensor information. As this determination method, a predetermined specified value (threshold value) relating to the detection value of the sensor 305 is set in advance in the priority notification means 306, and the detection value of the sensor 305 exceeds or exceeds the specified value. To determine the priority.

For example, when considering the case where the present invention is applied to a building security system, a specified value related to sound is set according to a specific time zone such as midnight, and a voice exceeding the specified value is detected by the sensor 305 during the time zone. When detected, the media information transmission means 307 is notified by raising the priority of the media information related to the sound, assuming that a suspicious object sound is detected.
Note that such a specified value is set by the policy server 141 and notified to the priority policy setting unit 304 via the network and the media concentrating gateway 302, and the priority notification unit 306 as one piece of information in the priority policy. You may make it set to.

  The media information transmission unit 307 transmits the media information to which priority information is added to the media concentration gateway 302 using the destination address information acquired from the transmission destination management unit 303. The video / audio information input device 308 is a camera, capture, encoder, or the like that inputs video information or audio information, and outputs the acquired video or audio media information to the media information transmission unit 307.

Next, the operation will be described.
As a premise, it is assumed that the media information providing device, the media concentrating gateway, and the media information display device each have information on a transmission source and a transmission destination. The information on the transmission source and the transmission destination is address information such as an IP address and a connection port number when the media information providing apparatus and the media concentration gateway are connected by an IP network.

First, transmission right distribution processing will be described.
The transmission right is distributed to each media concentration gateway depending on the equality or priority policy. The priority policy is set by the policy server 141, and is notified from the policy server 141 to each media concentration gateway.

  As a method of giving the priority policy, for example, the policy server 141 notifies the media collection gateway 131 that is the transmission source of the media information of the priority policy. As a result, the priority policy setting unit 206 in the media concentration gateway 131 sets the priority policy in the gateway, and the address information of all the transmission source media concentration gateways 121 to 122 from the transmission source management unit 204. And the priority policy is transmitted to the media concentrating gateways 121 to 122 based on the address information. Similarly, the priority policy is transmitted to the media information providing apparatuses 101 to 108.

  As described above, the distribution method of the transmission right is determined by the priority policy set in each of the media information providing apparatuses 101 to 108 and the media concentration gateways 111 to 112, 113 to 114, 121 to 122, and 131. In addition, the media information display device 142 determines the number of transmission rights. The number of transmission rights corresponds to, for example, the number of video and audio that can be reproduced simultaneously on the media information display device 142. In addition, the number of transmission rights may be determined based on a receivable communication band in the media information display device 142.

  If the number of transmission rights determined by the media information display device 142 is 20, the media information display device 142 provides the transmission media collection gateway 131 with 20 transmission rights. The transmission right distribution unit 207 in the media concentration gateway 131 acquires the address information of all the transmission source media collection gateways 121 to 122 from the transmission source management unit 204, and based on these address information, transmits 20 transmission rights. Distribute to each media concentrator gateway 121-122 according to equality or priority policy.

  For example, if the priority of the media concentrator gateway 121 is higher than that of the media concentrator gateway 122 based on the priority policy, 15 media concentrator gateways 121 and five media concentrator gateways 122 Distribute transmissions. Similarly, the transmission right is distributed to the media concentration gateways 111 to 112 and 113 to 114 immediately before the media information providing apparatuses 101 to 102, 103 to 104, 105 to 106, and 107 to 108. These distribution processes are performed by the transmission right distribution means 207 of each media concentration gateway.

Next, media information transfer processing based on the transmission right will be described.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of media information transfer processing by the media concentration gateway according to the first embodiment, using media information transmitted from the media information providing apparatuses 101 to 102 shown in FIG. 1 as an example. . In the following description, the transmission source and the transmission destination are recognized by the transmission source management unit 204 and the transmission destination management unit 205 when identifying the media information providing apparatus and the media concentration gateway and transmitting the information.

  The media information providing apparatuses 101 to 102 transmit the media information to the destination media concentrating gateway 111 connected to the own apparatus via the network. In the example of FIG. 3, the media information transmitting unit 307 in the media information providing apparatus 301 corresponding to the media information providing apparatuses 101 to 102 uses the destination address information acquired from the transmission destination managing unit 303 to give priority information. The assigned media information is transmitted to the destination media concentrator gateway 111. By the transmission of the media information, the subsequent media information transfer processing based on the transmission right by the media concentration gateway is started (step ST301).

  Also, when the priority notification means 306 in the media information providing apparatus 301 detects the urgency level by the sensor 305 or the like, the media information gateway 111 is notified with a high priority given to the media information. As the priority notification means 306, as shown in FIG. 3, for example, a predetermined specified value (threshold value) related to the detected value of the sensor 305 is set in advance, and the detected value of the sensor 305 exceeds the specified value, The priority may be determined according to the degree of excess, and priority information corresponding to the priority may be added to the media information related to the sensor information.

  In media concentrating gateway 111, internal media information receiving means 208 receives media information and priority information from the media information providing apparatus (step ST302). The media information and priority information received by the media information receiving unit 208 are immediately sent to the transfer control unit 209. The transfer control means 209 assigns a transmission right to the received media information by the internal transmission right assignment means 210.

  First, the transmission right allocating unit 210 resets the priority set in the priority information of the media information based on the priority policy set in the higher-level media concentrating gateway 121 as the transmission destination (step ST303). At this time, if a high priority is given to the media information by the priority notification means 306 of the media information providing apparatus 301 and the priority threshold value described later is exceeded, the priority remains unchanged. Then, the process proceeds to the subsequent transmission right assignment process.

  Subsequently, the transmission right allocating unit 210 allocates transmission rights corresponding to the number of transmission rights that can be set for each piece of media information received by the media information receiving unit 208. For example, at the initial stage, transmission rights are assigned randomly or in the order of media information having a higher priority.

  Thereafter, the transmission right assigning unit 210 determines whether or not the transmission right is assigned to each piece of media information temporarily held by itself (step ST304). At this time, if there is media information to which no transmission right is assigned, the transmission right assignment unit 210 does not transmit the media information to the media information transmission unit 211, and proceeds to the process of step ST305. The process proceeds to step ST313.

  In step ST305, the transmission right allocating unit 210 determines whether the priority of the media information to which no transmission right is allocated exceeds a preset priority threshold. In this process, it is determined whether or not the media information currently being processed is to be given a transmission right.

  For example, in the case where the priority of media information is expressed in binary in the system, it is determined that 0 is not preferred and 1 is preferred without providing the above threshold. If the priority is set in 10 levels (0 to 9) in the system, the priority threshold is set to 5 by default, or the priority is set from the media information display device 142 side which is a monitoring station. An arbitrary threshold value may be set via the policy setting means.

  Further, as the priority threshold value, it is desirable that the media information display device 142 as a monitoring station can reproduce the media information from each media information providing device in a regular cycle. For example, if the threshold is set too low, the threshold will be exceeded and the transmission right will continue to be retained even after the effective time of the priority has passed, so it is necessary to set an appropriate value in consideration of parameters such as the effective time. There is.

  If the transmission right allocating unit 210 determines in step ST305 that the priority of the media information does not exceed the threshold value, the transmission right allocating unit 210 determines that the media information does not have a priority to which the transmission right is allocated and determines the transmission right. No assignment is made and this is not transferred to the media information transmission means 211. That is, media information to which no transmission right is assigned is not transferred to the destination media concentration gateway 121. Note that when the priority of all received media information falls below the threshold value, as will be described later, the transmission right is assigned to all media information in a cycle manner according to the valid time.

  On the other hand, when the priority of the media information exceeds the threshold, the transmission right allocation unit 210 transmits the transmission right of the media information having the lowest priority among the transmission rights allocated to the media information having the priority lower than the threshold. Alternatively, the transmission right assignment with the shortest remaining effective time is canceled (step ST306). Here, the transmission right allocating unit 210 is a case where the priority of all the media information to which the transmission right is allocated that is held by the gateway 111 exceeds the threshold value and the transmission right cannot be deallocated in the previous step. It is determined whether or not there is a transmission right to be assigned to the media information due to a lack of transmission rights (step ST307).

  If it is determined in step ST307 that the above is the case, the transmission right assigning means 210 instructs the transmission right moving means 215 to execute a transmission right request process (step ST308) as will be described later. By transferring the transmission right between the communication gateways, the transmission right is transferred from another media collection gateway. When the transmission right is acquired from the other media concentrating gateway by this transmission right request processing, the transmission right allocation means 210 allocates the acquired transmission right to the media information (step ST309).

  In step ST307, if the priority of all media information to which the transmission right is assigned and held by the gateway 111 exceeds the threshold value, the transmission right cannot be deallocated in the previous step, or the number of transmission rights If there is no shortage and there is no transmission right to be assigned to the media information, the transmission right assignment means 210 assigns the transmission right that has been deallocated in step ST306 to the media information (step ST310).

  When the media information transmission unit 211 inputs the media information to which the transmission right is assigned, the media information transmission unit 211 acquires the address information of the destination media concentrating gateway 121 from the transmission destination management unit 205 (step ST311). Then, the media information transmitting unit 211 transmits the media information to which the priority information is given to the media concentration gateway 121 using the address information acquired in step ST311 (step ST312).

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step ST304 that there is no media information to which no transmission right is assigned, the transmission right assignment unit 210 determines whether or not the transmission right assigned to the media information exceeds the valid time ( Step ST313). For example, the transmission right allocation unit 210 may calculate an effective time of an appropriate length according to the priority value. The transmission right allocation time may be calculated from the media information display device 142 side serving as a monitoring station. A fixed valid time that does not depend on priority may be set for the media information designated for the concentrator gateway. Thereby, for example, a long effective period can be set for the media information that is determined to be particularly important by the monitor.

  In step ST313, when the transmission right allocating unit 210 determines that the transmission right set in the determination target media information does not exceed the valid time, the process proceeds to step ST311 and the media information and its priority information are obtained. It transmits to the media information transmission means 211. As a result, the processing from step ST311 to step ST312 described above is performed, and the media information is transmitted to the upper media concentrating gateway 121.

  If the transmission right allocating unit 210 determines that the transmission right of the media information has exceeded the valid time, the priority of the media information having the transmission right that has expired is set to the priority threshold value used in step ST305. It is determined whether or not it exceeds (step ST314). At this time, if the priority exceeds the threshold value, the transmission right allocating unit 210 resets the effective time of the transmission right so that the high-priority media information is continuously transmitted to the upper media concentration gateway 121. (Step ST315).

  On the other hand, if the priority is lower than the threshold, the transmission right allocating unit 210 cancels the transmission right of the media information and has a high priority but the effective time of the transmission right has expired. For the media information, a process of delegating as a transmission right with a new effective time is executed (step ST316).

  Through these processes, media information with a high priority can be immediately transferred to the destination media concentrator gateway 121 within the range of the number of transmission rights distributed to the media concentrator gateway 111. The media concentrator gateway 121 transfers the media information to the next media concentrator gateway 131 by the same process, and the media concentrator gateway 131 also transfers the media information to the media information display device 142 by the same process (step). ST317).

  As a result, the media information display device 142 can realize a remote monitoring system in which the video information and audio displayed periodically are switched by receiving media information within the media information reception limit range, that is, the reproducible number. Also, media information relating to urgent video and audio can be quickly received and displayed.

  The media concentrator gateways 121 and 131 interposed between the media information display device 142 do not use the transmission right allocating unit 210, and the received media information is directly used as the destination media concentrator gateway or the media information display device. You may forward to.

Next, details of the transmission right transfer process will be described.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing by the transmission right transfer means in FIG. 1, FIG. 5 (a) shows processing in the media concentration gateway 111 that makes a transmission right request, and FIG. 5 (b) shows transmission. FIG. 5C shows the processing in the lower media concentration gateway 112 that has received the transmission right transfer request from the gateway 121.

  First, in step ST307 in FIG. 4, the transmission right allocating means 210 is unable to deallocate the transmission right because the priority of all the media information to which the transmission right is allocated exceeds the threshold, or the number of transmission rights is insufficient. If it is determined that the transmission right to be assigned to the media information does not exist, the transmission right requesting means 216 of the media concentration gateway 111 newly receives the transmission right. The transmission right is requested to 121 (step ST402).

  Upon receiving the transmission right request (step ST422), the transmission right transfer request means 217 of the media concentration gateway 121 receives the media sent from the transmission source media concentration gateways 111 to 112 connected to the own gateway via the network. Among the information, the media information having the lowest priority specified by the priority information is lower than the priority threshold used in step ST305 in FIG. 4 and the lowest priority is searched (step ST423).

  After this search processing, the transmission right transfer request means 217 fails to search for the media information that should be requested to transfer the transmission right because the priority of the media information sent from the media concentration gateways 111 to 112 is all higher than the threshold value. It is determined whether or not (step ST424). At this time, if it is determined that the search is successful, the transmission right transfer requesting means 217 transfers the transmission right assigned to the media information to the media concentrating gateway that is transmitting the media information of the search result. Thus, a transmission right transfer request is transmitted (step ST425). Here, for example, it is assumed that the media information is received from the media concentration gateway 112.

  When the transmission right deletion means 218 of the media concentration gateway 112 receives the transmission right transfer request from the gateway 121 (step ST412), the transfer control means 209 and the media information transmission means 211 of the media concentration gateway 112 relate to the request. The transmission of media information is stopped (step ST413). Then, the transmission right assigned to the media information is deleted (step ST414).

  Thereafter, the transmission right transfer means 215 of the media concentration gateway 112 returns a message indicating that the transmission right has been successfully deleted to the destination media concentration gateway 121 (step ST415). Thereby, the processing in the media concentration gateway 112 is completed (step ST416).

  When the transmission right transfer means 215 of the media concentration gateway 121 receives a message indicating that the transmission right has been successfully deleted as a response to the transmission right transfer request (step ST426), the transmission is transferred to the media concentration gateway 111 that has requested the transmission right. A message to the effect that the right request is successful is returned (step ST427). Thereby, the processing in the media concentration gateway 121 is completed (step ST429).

  When the transmission right distribution means 207 of the media concentration gateway 111 receives a response indicating that the above-mentioned transmission right request is successful (step ST403), the transmission right deleted by the media concentration gateway 112 is transferred to itself. As a result, the count of the number of transmission rights that can be allocated is increased by 1 (step ST404). Thereafter, the transmission right distribution unit 207 notifies the transmission right allocation unit 210 of information regarding the number of updated transmission rights as transmission right information, and completes the transmission right request process (step ST405).

  In this way, the transmission right assigning means 210 of the media concentration gateway 111 assigns the transmission right newly increased in step ST309 in FIG. 4 to the media information with a high priority.

  On the other hand, in step ST424, if the transmission right transfer requesting unit 217 of the media concentrating gateway 121 determines that the priority of the media information received by the gateway exceeds all thresholds and the search has failed, The processing proceeds to the process of requesting the transmission right to the higher-level media concentrating gateway 131 by instructing the transmission right requesting means 216 of 121 (step ST428).

  When the transmission right transfer request means 217 of the media concentration gateway 131 receives the transmission right request, it is sent from the transmission source media concentration gateways 121 to 122 connected to the own gateway via the network by the same processing as described above. Among the incoming media information, the media information having the lowest priority specified by the priority information is lower than the priority threshold used in step ST305 in FIG. Here, it is assumed that media information having a priority lower than the priority threshold and having the lowest priority is received from the media concentration gateway 122, for example.

  In the same manner as the above processing, the transmission right transfer request means 217 of the media concentration gateway 131 transmits a transmission right transfer request to the media concentration gateway 122. Upon receiving the transmission right transfer request from the gateway 131, the transmission right deleting means 218 of the media concentration gateway 122 receives the media sent from the transmission source media concentration gateways 113 to 114 connected to the gateway via the network. Among the information, the media information having the lowest priority, the priority specified from the priority information being lower than the priority threshold used in step ST305 in FIG. 4, is searched. Here, it is assumed that media information having a priority lower than the priority threshold and having the lowest priority is received from the media concentration gateway 113, for example.

  In this case as well, the transmission right transfer request means 217 of the media concentration gateway 122 transmits a transmission right transfer request to the media concentration gateway 113. When the transmission right deletion means 218 of the media concentration gateway 113 receives the transmission right transfer request from the gateway 122, it instructs the transfer control means 209 and the media information transmission means 211 of the gateway 113 to perform media information related to the request. Stop sending Then, the transmission right assigned to the media information is deleted.

  Thereafter, the transmission right transfer means 215 of the media concentration gateway 113 sends back to the destination media concentration gateway 122 that the transmission right has been successfully deleted. The transmission right transfer request means 217 of the media concentration gateway 122 returns a message indicating that the transmission right request is successful to the media concentration gateway 131 that has requested the transmission right transfer. The transfer request unit 217 returns a message indicating that the transmission right request is successful to the media concentrating gateway 121 that has requested the transmission right.

  When the transmission right distribution means 207 of the gateway 121 receives a response indicating that the above-mentioned transmission right request has been successful, the transmission right that can be assigned is assumed to be assigned to the transmission right deleted by the media concentration gateway 113. Increase the number count by one. Thereafter, the transmission right distributing unit 207 notifies the transmission right allocating unit 210 of information regarding the number of updated transmission rights as transmission right information. In the transmission right assigning means 210 of the media concentrating gateway 121, the transmission right newly increased in step ST309 in FIG. 4 is assigned to media information having a high priority.

  In addition, in order to display on-demand media information that has not been displayed on the media information display device 142 or media information to be replayed, the media information storage means 220 of each media concentration gateway stores a hard disk or the like in the media concentration gateway. Media information may be stored in the device, and the media information may be distributed upon request. For example, a configuration is conceivable in which an operation mode for storing media information in the system is defined and appropriately set in a media concentration gateway in a route for providing media information desired to be displayed or media information desired to be replayed.

  Further, the amount of encoded media information may be reduced by the transcoding unit 219 when the media information storage unit 220 stores or when the transfer control unit 209 determines that the transmission right is insufficient. For example, in the case of image information, the encoding rate is reduced, the resolution is reduced, the frame rate is reduced, and re-encoding is performed to reduce the encoding amount of media information.

  As described above, according to the first embodiment, each media concentration gateway cooperatively moves and assigns transmission rights, so that it is possible to resolve the transmission conflict of media information at high speed and It is possible to quickly receive and display video and audio having

Embodiment 2. FIG.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the media concentration gateway according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and assigns a transmission right based on the status value of the media information. In FIG. 6, the state value setting unit 213 sets a state value for the media information received by the media information receiving unit 208. The state value set in the media information changes with the priority and the passage of time. By defining a certain threshold value, a state exceeding this threshold value can be set as the grant state. In the second embodiment, media information whose status value is in the grant state is transferred to the destination media concentrating gateway. In FIG. 6, the same or corresponding components as those in FIG.

Next, the operation will be described.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a transmission right assignment process by the media concentration gateway according to the second embodiment, which will be described with reference to this figure.
When the media information receiving unit 208 of the media concentrating gateway 202 receives the media information and priority information from the media information providing apparatus or the lower gateway 201, it immediately outputs it to the transfer control unit 209. The transfer control unit 209 causes the state value setting unit 213 to set a state value when assigning a transmission right to the received media information (step ST501).

First, it is assumed that the initial value of the state value is 0, and rises at a certain rate when the state value is below a predetermined threshold and not in the grant state (non-grant state). Here, this rate of increase is α1. Further, the increase rate α1 is assumed to change according to the priority of the media information.
On the other hand, the state value of the media information a in the grant state is assumed to decrease at a certain rate. Here, let α2 be a constant rate of decrease in the grant state. Similarly to the non-grant state, in the grant state, the rate of decrease of the state value changes depending on the priority given to the media information.

  Assume that the algorithm for calculating the rate of increase, the rate of decrease, and the rate of change according to priority is set in the state value setting unit 213 in advance. According to this algorithm, the state value setting means 213 calculates an increase rate β of the state value to be set in the media information from the priority information of the received media information a (step ST502).

  Next, the state value setting means 213 compares the state value of the media information a with the threshold value and determines whether the media information a is in the grant state (step ST503). At this time, if the state value of the media information a does not exceed the threshold value, the process proceeds to step ST504 as it is in the non-grant state, and if it exceeds the threshold value, the process proceeds to step ST510 as it is in the grant state. Transition.

  In the non-grant state, the state value setting unit 213 represents the rate of increase of the state value of the media information a as (α1 + β) (step ST504). Here, if the priority of the media information a is high, β> 0, and if the priority is low, β ≦ 0. That is, when the priority of media information a is high, the rate of increase is large and the transition to the grant state is accelerated, and conversely, when the priority of media information a is low, the rate of increase may be low or decrease. The transition to the state is slow.

  As described above, since the initial value of the state value set in the media information by the state value setting unit 213 is 0 and the non-grant state, the state value of the media information a increases at a constant rate (α1 + β). (Step ST505).

  The transmission right allocating unit 210 determines whether or not the state value Da of the media information a in the non-grant state exceeds the threshold (step ST506). Here, if it is still in the non-grant state, it is determined that the media information is not to be transmitted, the transmission right is not assigned, and the process is terminated (step ST516). On the other hand, if the state value exceeds the threshold value and the media information a is about to newly enter the grant state, the process proceeds to step ST507.

  In step ST507, the transmission right assigning means 210 compares the number of media information already in the grant state with a preset number of transmission rights, and determines whether or not there is an empty transmission right. At this time, if there is no vacant transmission right, the transmission right allocating unit 210 cannot recognize that it is the media information a in the grant state to which the transmission right is to be assigned, and among the media information in other grant states The state value Db of the media information b having the smallest state value is reset as a new threshold (step ST508).

  On the other hand, if there is a vacant transmission right, transmission right allocating means 210 can recognize that it is the media information a in the grant state to which the transmission right is to be assigned, and assigns the transmission right to this (step ST509).

  If it is determined in step ST503 that the state is the grant state, state value setting means 213 represents the rate of decrease of the state value of media information a as (α2−β) (step ST510). Here, when the priority of the media information a is high, the rate of decrease may be small or increase, and the transition to the non-grant state becomes slow. Conversely, when the priority of the media information is low, the rate of decrease is large. , The transition to the non-grant state becomes faster.

  When the media information a is in the grant state, the state value decreases at a constant rate (α2−β) as described above (step ST511).

  The transmission right allocating means 210 determines whether or not the state value Da of the media information a in the grant state is below the threshold value (step ST512). Here, if it is still in the grant state, it is determined that the media information has already been assigned the transmission right, and no new transmission right is assigned, and the process ends (step ST516). On the other hand, if the state value is below the threshold value and the media information a is going to be in a non-grant state, the process proceeds to step ST513.

  In step ST513, when the state value Da of the media information a in the grant state decreases and falls below the current threshold value, the transmission right allocating unit 210 determines the state value Db of the media information b having the next highest state value after the media information a. Is set to the latest threshold value to set the media information b in the grant state (step ST513).

  Subsequently, the transmission right allocating unit 210 resets the state value of the media information a to the initial value and cancels the transmission right allocation (step ST514). The initial value to be reset may be set according to the status value of the media information a. For example, if the media information has been in the grant state for a long time, adjustment such as resetting to an initial value of 0 or more is performed.

  Subsequently, the transmission right allocating unit 210 assigns the transmission right of the media information a for which the transmission right has been unassigned to the media information b in which the state value Db is set to the latest threshold (step ST515). Thereby, the process is terminated (step ST516).

  As described above, the transmission right assignment unit 210 assigns a transmission right from the state value of the media information. It is assumed that the transmission right of each media concentration gateway is distributed in the same manner as in the first embodiment. Basically, the transmission right assigning means 210 assigns the transmission right in descending order of the state value of the media information, and only the media information to which the transmission right is assigned is sent via the media information sending means 211 to the destination media concentrating gateway. Forward to.

  In addition, since the transmission right is assigned to the media information in the grant state, the threshold of the state value that is the boundary of the grant state is determined by the number of transmission rights held by the media concentrating gateway. It fluctuates according to change.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram schematically illustrating a process in which the media concentration gateway according to the second embodiment receives media information from the media information providing apparatus, and receives four media information providing apparatuses and their media information. Represents a media concentrator gateway. In FIG. 8, the media concentration gateway 605 holds two transmission rights 606 and 607 and receives media information 611 to 614 transmitted from four media information providing apparatuses 601 to 604.

  Here, the status values of the media information 611 to 614 set by the status value setting means 213 of the media concentration gateway 605 become media information 611> media information 612> media information 613> media information 614 at a certain time T1. Assume that At this time, since the number of transmission rights to be held is two, the media information 611 and the media information 612 having a high state value are in a grant state, and the transmission right 606 and the transmission right 607 are assigned respectively. The threshold value of the state value is the state value of the media information 612 at that time.

  FIG. 9 is a graph showing an example of state value fluctuation of each piece of media information in the media concentration gateway in FIG. It is assumed that the state value fluctuations 701 to 704 of the media information 611 to 614 conform to the state value fluctuation method described above. The hatched area in the figure indicates the grant state 706, and a constant state value in the time interval after the times T1 to T2, T2 to T3, T3 to T4, and T4 corresponds to the threshold value of that interval. As shown in the figure, the state value at time T2 in the state value fluctuation 702 of the media information 612 represented by a broken line is lower than the threshold value 705 in the section T1 to T2. As a result, the media information 612 enters a non-grant state, and the state value at T2 is reset to the initial value 707 (= 0).

  At this time, the transmission right 607 assigned to the media information 612 is unassigned, and media information to be newly assigned is detected. For example, media information 613 (state value fluctuation 703 indicated by a one-dot broken line in the figure) having a state value 708 higher than the state value 707 at time T2 is detected as media information to which the transmission right 607 is to be assigned. Therefore, in order to set the media information 613 to the grant state, the state value 708 of the media information 613 at time T2 is reset as the threshold value 705.

  As a result, the transmission right 607 is deprived from the media information 612 and the transfer is stopped. Instead, the transmission right 607 is assigned to the media information 613 and the media information 613 is transferred to the destination media concentrating gateway. In the state value fluctuation 704 of the media information 614 indicated by a two-dot broken line, the state value of the media information 614 that has been in the non-grant state until then increases and reaches the threshold value 705 at time T3.

  In this case, normally, the media information 614 also shifts to the grant state, but the media concentration gateway 605 holds only two transmission rights 606 and 607, and the transmission right 606 is stored in the media information 611 and the transmission right 607. Is assigned to the media information 613, and thus there is no free transmission right. For this reason, the media information 614 cannot be in a grant state.

  Therefore, at time T3, the state value 709 of the media information 613 having the lowest state value among the media information 611 and 613 in the grant state is reset as the threshold 705. At time T4, as can be seen from the state value fluctuation 701 of the media information 611 indicated by the solid line, the state value of the media information 611 falls below the threshold 705.

  At this time, the media information 611 is in a non-grant state, and the state value is also reset to the initial value (state value 712). Then, the transmission right 606 assigned to the media information 611 is unassigned, and media information to be newly assigned is detected. In the illustrated example, the media information 614 (state value fluctuation 704 indicated by a two-dot broken line in the figure) having the next highest state value 711 after the threshold value 705 equal to the state value 709 is the medium to which the transmission right 606 is to be assigned. Detected as information.

Thereafter, in order to set the media information 614 to the grant state, the state value 711 of the media information 614 at time T4 is reset as the threshold 705. As a result, the media information 614 becomes a grant state, and the transmission right 606 is assigned to the media information 614.
When the state value of the media information 611 at T4 is reset to the initial value, the initial value is set to a value of 0 or more (state value 712) because the media information 611 has been in the grant state for a long time.

  As described above, according to the second embodiment, the state value is changed over time at the rate of change according to the priority of the media information, and the transmission right is assigned according to the state value. Therefore, it is possible to increase the reproduction time and frequency of high-priority media information for a long time, and to reduce unnecessary traffic such as transmitting unimportant media information, thereby effectively using the network. Further, since such media concentrating gateways perform such flexible scheduling in a distributed manner, the present invention can be applied to a large-scale monitoring system having a media information providing apparatus of thousands of scales.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the media concentration gateway according to the third embodiment of the present invention. The status value of the media information is exchanged between the media concentration gateways and analyzed, and the transmission right is determined according to the value. Is assigned. In FIG. 10, the state value information receiving unit 212 receives the state value of the media information and its threshold value as the state value information from the lower media concentrating gateway 201 and outputs the state value information to the transmission right moving unit 215. The status value information transmitting unit 214 transmits status value information corresponding to the media information from the gateway 202 to the higher gateway 203. Also in the third embodiment, media information whose state value is in the grant state is transferred to the destination media concentrating gateway. In FIG. 10, the same or corresponding components as those in FIGS. 2 and 6 are denoted by the same reference numerals and redundant description is omitted.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram schematically illustrating a process in which the media concentration gateway according to the third embodiment receives media information from the media information providing apparatus. Each of the three media information providing apparatuses and the media information is received. Represents a media concentrator gateway. In the example of FIG. 11, the media concentrator gateway 807 that receives the media information 811 to 813 from the three media information providing devices 801 to 803 and the media information 814 to 816 of the same three media information providing devices 804 to 806 are used. A part of a media concentration control system configured by a media concentration gateway 808 for receiving media information gateways 809 for receiving media information 821 to 825 from the two media concentration gateways 807 and 808. is there.

  Further, two transmission rights 851 to 852, 853 to 854 are distributed to the media concentration gateways 807 and 808, respectively, and the total of four transmission rights 855 to 858 are allocated to the media concentration gateway 809. Distributed. Each of the media concentrating gateways 807 to 809 transfers the media information to the destination media concentrating gateway based on the transmission right assignment according to the state value described in the second embodiment.

  In the illustrated example, the state value of each piece of media information is media information 811> media information 812> media information 813 and media information 814> media information 815> media information 816. Here, the media concentrating gateway 807 assigns transmission rights 851 and 852 to the two media information 811 and 812 in the grant state, and these media information is set as media information 821 and 822 to the destination media concentrating gateway 809. Forwarding. Similarly, the media concentrator gateway 808 assigns transmission rights 853 and 854 to the two media information 814 and 815 that are in the grant state, and the media information 824 and 825 is sent to the media concentrator gateway 809 as the transmission destination. Have transferred as. The media concentrator gateway 809 transmits the media information 821, 822, 824, and 825 as media information 831, 832, 834, and 835 to the upper media concentrator gateway.

  Further, in the third embodiment, the state value information transmission means 214 of each media concentration gateway uses the state value of all or high state information of the media information and the threshold value at that time as the state value information, as the destination media collection. To the gateway. On the other hand, the state value information receiving means 212 of each media concentration gateway receives the state value information transmitted from the transmission source media concentration gateway.

  In the example of FIG. 11, the media concentration gateway 807 transmits the state values of all the received media information 811 to 813 and the threshold values at that time as state value information 841 to the destination media concentration gateway 809. Yes. Similarly, the media concentration gateway 808 also transmits the status values of all the received media information 814 to 816 and the threshold value at that time to the media concentration gateway 809 as status value information 842. The media concentration gateway 809 also transmits the status value information 843 regarding the media information 821, 822, 824, and 825 to the upper media concentration gateway. In each media concentration gateway, the transmission right is transferred by the transmission right transfer means 215 based on the received status value information.

Next, the operation will be described.
FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing by the transmission right transfer means in FIG. 10, FIG. 12 (a) shows processing in the media concentration gateway 807, and FIG. 12 (b) is in media concentration gateway 809. FIG. 12C shows the processing in the media concentration gateway 808.

  When the state value setting unit 213 of the media concentrating gateway 807 acquires the media information 811 to 813 and the priority information received from the media information providing devices 801 to 803 from the transfer control unit 209, the state value setting unit 213 described in the second embodiment The state values of the media information 811 to 813 and their threshold values are calculated according to the algorithm for calculating the rate of increase, the rate of decrease, and the rate of change according to the priority (step ST901).

  Thereafter, the state value information transmission unit 212 of the media concentration gateway 807 transmits the state information regarding the media information 811 to 813 from the state value setting unit 213 when transmitting the media information 821 and 822 to the upper level media concentration gateway 809. The threshold value is acquired, and the state value and threshold value regarding the media information 811 to 813 are transmitted to the media concentration gateway 809 as the state value information 841 (step ST902). Similarly, the media concentrator gateway 808 transmits the status information 842 regarding the media information 814 to 816 to the media concentrator gateway 809 together with the media information 824 and 825. Thereby, the transmission right transfer process of the media concentration gateway 809 is started (step ST921).

  In the media concentration gateway 809, the internal state value information receiving means 214 receives the state value information 841 and 842 from the media concentration gateways 807 and 808 (step ST922) and outputs them to the transmission right transfer means 215. The transmission right transfer means 215 of the media concentrator gateway 809 identifies the state values and threshold values of the media information 811 to 813 from the state value information 841 and 842, analyzes the increase rate and the decrease rate, and based on this analysis result It is determined whether or not each state value is approaching the threshold (step ST923). Here, for example, it is assumed that the status value of the media information 813 gradually approaches the threshold value of the media concentration gateway 807 from the status value information 841.

  When this fluctuation progresses and the state value of the media information 813 exceeds the threshold, the state value setting means 213 of the media concentration gateway 807 is normally in the grant state as shown in the second embodiment. The state value of the media information 812 having the lowest state value among the media information 811 and 812 is reset as a new threshold, and the media information 813 cannot enter the grant state.

  Therefore, in the third embodiment, when the threshold value of the media information 811 to 813 at that time exceeds the movement determination threshold value, a transmission right transfer process is executed between the media concentrating gateways 807 to 809. Perform the assignment.

  Here, the transmission right transfer means 215 of the media concentrator gateway 809 is set in advance with a threshold value at that time as a boundary between the state information values of the media information 811 and 812 in the grant state and the media information 813 in the non-grant state. It is determined whether or not the movement determination threshold is exceeded (step ST924). The movement determination threshold is a reference value for determining whether or not a large amount of high-priority media information is received at the current threshold. For example, a value determined in the system or each media concentration gateway is The average value of the threshold value can be considered. When the threshold value of media information from a certain media concentration gateway is larger than the movement determination threshold value, it means that the media concentration gateway has received a lot of media information with high priority.

  Note that the transmission right transfer means 215 of the media concentrator gateway 809 determines that the threshold value is the movement determination threshold value when it is determined that the state value of the media information 813 has approached the threshold value in step ST923, not after the state value of the media information 813 exceeds the threshold value. Check if it exceeds. At this time, when the threshold value exceeds the movement determination threshold value, the media concentration gateway 809 has the transmission right for the media information 813 transferred from a media concentration gateway other than the media concentration gateway 807, and the media concentration gateway The process proceeds to 807.

  Specifically, first, the transmission right transfer request unit 217 of the media concentrator gateway 809 selects a state value that is in the grant state and has the lowest state value among the state values received by the state value information receiving unit 212. Search is performed (step ST925). At this time, it is determined whether or not the state value of the search result exceeds the movement determination threshold value (step ST926). If the retrieved state value exceeds the movement determination threshold value, the process proceeds to step ST930, and the transmission right is not moved.

  When the state value of the search result is lower than the movement determination threshold, the transmission right assignment requesting unit 217 assigns the transmission right of the media information to the media concentration gateway that has transmitted the media information corresponding to the state value. A transmission right transfer request for receiving the request is transmitted (step ST927).

  Here, the state value of the search result as described above is the state value of the media information 824 to which the transmission right 853 has been assigned by the media concentration gateway 808, and the transmission right transfer request means of the media concentration gateway 809. Assume that 217 transmits a transmission right transfer request for the transmission right of the media information 824 to the media concentration gateway 808. Thereby, the transmission right transfer process by the media concentration gateway 808 is started (step ST911).

  When receiving the transmission right transfer request from the media concentration gateway 809 (step ST912), the transmission right deleting means 218 of the media concentration gateway 808 identifies the transmission right 853 from the transmission right transfer request. Then, it instructs the media information transmitting means 211 to stop the transmission of the media information 824 corresponding to the transmission right 853 (step ST913).

  Then, the transmission right deleting means 218 deletes the transmission right 853 assigned to the media information 824 (step ST914), and notifies the media concentration gateway 809 that the transmission right has been successfully deleted as a response to the transmission right transfer request. A reply is made (step ST915). Thereby, the transmission right transfer process by the media concentration gateway 808 is completed (step ST916).

  When the transmission right transfer requesting means 217 of the media concentration gateway 809 receives a response indicating that the transmission right 853 has been successfully deleted from the media concentration gateway 808 (step ST928), it immediately notifies the transmission right assignment means 210. The transmission right assignment means 210 notifies the media concentration gateway 807 that one transmission right for the transmission right 853 is provided (step ST929). Thereby, the transmission right transfer process by the media concentration gateway 809 is completed (step ST930).

  When the transmission right distribution means 207 of the media concentration gateway 807 receives a notification from the media concentration gateway 809 that one transmission right is provided, the transmission right distribution means 207 assumes that the transmission right can be newly acquired. The number is incremented by 1 (step ST903). The updated transmission right information is immediately notified from the transmission right distribution unit 207 to the transmission right allocation unit 210. As a result, when the state value of the media information 813 that is approaching the threshold value exceeds the threshold value at that time, the transmission right assignment unit 210 assigns a transmission right to the media information 813, and the media information is transmitted via the media information transmission unit 211. Transmit to the concentrator gateway 809.

  As described above, according to the third embodiment, the media concentrator gateway analyzes in advance the state value of the media information received by the source media concentrator gateway, and the transmission right is likely to be required. Since the right of transmission is transferred to other media concentration gateways from other media concentration gateways, it is possible to quickly resolve media information transmission conflicts and receive and display urgent video and audio immediately. .

Embodiment 4 FIG.
In the fourth embodiment, general transmission rights and backup transmission rights are defined for media information in the system, and distribution and allocation of these are performed, thereby realizing appropriate reception and display of media information.

  The basic configuration of the media concentration gateway according to the fourth embodiment is the same as that of the second embodiment, for example. As in the first embodiment, the total number of transmission rights is, for example, the number of video and audio that can be played back simultaneously on the media information display device, and is distributed to the media concentration gateway in consideration of the priority policy. To do. The transmission right distributed by this method is called a general transmission right. That is, the general transmission right is the same as the transmission right described in the first to third embodiments, and is assigned to media information having a high priority. The media information to which the general transmission right is assigned is the destination media collection. Can be forwarded to the communication gateway.

  In the fourth embodiment, the reserve transmission right is distributed to the source media concentrating gateway in consideration of the maximum receivable bandwidth and priority policy of the media concentrating gateway. The reserve transmission right is a transmission right that is used only when the transmission right transfer means 215 transfers the transmission right from another media concentration gateway as in the second embodiment.

  That is, when media information a having a high priority is generated in a certain media concentration gateway, but the media information to which the general transmission right is allocated in the media concentration gateway also has a high priority exceeding a threshold, In mode 4, a preliminary transmission right is assigned to the media information a, and the media information is transmitted to the destination media concentrating gateway as high-priority media information. The media concentrating gateway that has received the media information transmitted with the preliminary transmission right receives the transmission right from another media concentrating gateway, and changes the preliminary transmission right to the general transmission right.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram schematically showing processing in which the media concentrating gateway according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention receives media information from the media information providing apparatus, and media is distributed by allocation and allocation of general transmission rights and backup transmission rights. An example is shown in which transmission rights are transferred between concentrating gateways. In the example of FIG. 13, the media concentrator gateway 1007 that receives the media information 1011 to 1013 from the three media information providing apparatuses 1001 to 1003, and the media information 1014 to 1016 of the three media information providing apparatuses 1004 to 1006 are used. Fig. 4 shows a part of a media concentration control system configured by a media concentration gateway that receives the media concentration gateway 1009 that receives media information 1021 to 1025 from the two media concentration gateways 1007 and 1008. .

  The media concentrator gateway 1009 has four general transmission rights 1061 to 1064 and three preliminary transmission rights 1058 to 1060. At this time, two general transmission rights 1053 to 1054 and 1056 to each of the media concentrator gateway 1007 and the media concentrator gateway 1008 are determined based on the number of units managing the transmission source media information providing apparatus and the priority policy. 1057 is distributed. The reserve transmission right is also distributed to the media concentration gateway 1007 and the media concentration gateway 1008 in the same manner.

  Here, distribution may be performed in consideration of a communication band or the like. For example, as schematically illustrated in FIG. 13 with a thick communication path, the maximum communication bandwidth between the media concentration gateway 1007 and the media concentration gateway 1009 is the media concentration gateway 1008. And a media communication gateway 1009 that is wider than the maximum communication bandwidth. Therefore, three spare transmission rights 1058 to 1060 are distributed to the media concentrating gateway 1009, two spare transmission rights 1051 and 1052 are distributed to the media concentrating gateway 1007, and one spare transmission right is allocated to the media concentrating gateway 1008. The transmission right 1055 is distributed.

  In the example of FIG. 13, the state value of each piece of media information is in the state of media information 1011> media information 1012> media information 1013 and media information 1014> media information 1015> media information 1016. Further, the media concentrating gateway 1007 assigns general transmission rights 1053 and 1054 to the two media information 1011 and 1012 in the grant state, and transfers them as media information 1021 and 1022 to the destination media concentrating gateway 1009.

  Similarly, the media concentration gateway 1008 assigns general transmission rights 1056 and 1057 to the two pieces of media information 1014 and 1015 in the grant state, and transfers them as media information 1024 and 1025 to the destination media concentration gateway 1009. . The media concentrator gateway 1009 also assigns general transmission rights 1061 to 1064 to the received media information 1021 to 1022 and 1024 to 1025 and transfers the media information 1031 to 1032 and 1034 to 1035 to the upper gateway.

  14 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing by the transmission right transfer means in FIG. 13, FIG. 14 (a) shows processing in the media concentration gateway 1007, and FIG. 14 (b) is media concentration gateway. The processing in 1009 is shown, and FIG. 14C shows the processing in the media concentration gateway 1008.

  The transmission right assignment means 210 of the media concentration gateway 1007 can assign the transmission right by comparing the priority specified from the priority information of the received media information with the priority threshold value shown in the first embodiment. It is determined whether or not the media information should be. In response to the determination result, transmission right transfer processing is started (step ST1101).

  For example, it is determined that the priority of the media information 1013 is a high priority exceeding the above threshold, and the priorities of the media information 1011 and 1012 to which the general transmission rights 1053 and 1054 distributed to the own gateway 1007 are assigned are all the above. When the threshold is exceeded, the transmission right assignment unit 210 assigns the preliminary transmission right 1051 to the media information 1013 and transfers it to the destination media concentrating gateway 1009 via the media information transmission unit 211 (step ST1102). Thereby, the media concentrating gateway 1009 starts a transmission right transfer process (step ST1121).

  When the media information receiving means 208 of the media concentration gateway 1009 receives the media information 1013 based on the preliminary transmission right 1051 from the media concentration gateway 1007 (step ST1122), the media information reception means 208 immediately sends it to the transmission right transfer means 215 via the transfer control means 209. Send. The transmission right transfer requesting unit 217 of the transmission right moving unit 215 selects media information that is lower than the priority threshold and has the lowest priority among the media information received from the lower media concentration gateways 1007 and 1008. (Step ST1123).

  Thereafter, the transmission right transfer requesting means 217 stops the transfer of the media information selected in step ST1123 to the higher-level media concentration gateway (step ST1123), and sends the media information gateway transmitting the media information to the media concentration gateway. Then, a transmission right transfer request is transmitted so as to transfer the general transmission right assigned to the media information (step ST1125). Here, for example, it is assumed that the media information 1024 received from the media concentrating gateway 1008 is selected as a transmission right transfer request target.

  When the transmission right deleting means 218 of the media concentration gateway 1008 receives the transmission right transfer request from the media concentration gateway 1009 (step ST1112), it identifies the general transmission right 1056 related to the request and sends it to the media information transmission means 211. The transfer of the media information 1024 instructed and given the general transmission right 1056 is stopped (step ST1113). Thereafter, the transmission right deleting means 218 deletes the general transmission right 1056 of the media information 1024 (step ST1114), and indicates that the transmission right has been successfully deleted as a response to the transmission right transfer request. (Step ST1115). Thereby, the transmission right transfer process by the media concentration gateway 1008 is completed (step ST1116).

  When the transmission right transfer request means 217 of the media concentration gateway 1009 receives a response indicating that the general transmission right 1056 has been successfully deleted from the media concentration gateway 1008 (step ST1126), it immediately notifies the transmission right distribution means 207. The transmission right distribution means 207 notifies the media concentration gateway 1007 as a general transmission right change request that the preliminary transmission right 1051 of the media information 1013 is changed to the general transmission right corresponding to the deleted general transmission right 1056 (step ST1127). Thereby, the transmission right transfer process by the media concentration gateway 1009 is completed (step ST1128).

  Upon receiving a general transmission right change request from the media concentration gateway 1009 (step ST1103), the transmission right distribution unit 207 of the media concentration gateway 1007 immediately notifies the transmission right allocation unit 210. Thereby, the transmission right allocating means 210 changes the preliminary transmission right 1051 given to the media information 1013 to the general transmission right (step ST1104). Then, the media information 1013 is transmitted to the media concentrating gateway 1009 by the general transmission right through the media information transmitting unit 211.

  Further, the transmission right distribution means 207 increases the number of general transmission rights by 1 based on the general transmission right change request (step ST1105). Thereby, the transmission right transfer process by the media concentration gateway 1007 is completed (step ST1106).

  As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, when high-priority media information is generated, the media information is immediately transferred with the reserve transmission right, so that it is possible to resolve the transmission conflict of the media information at high speed. In addition, urgent video and audio can be quickly received and displayed by the media information display device.

It is a figure which shows schematically the structure of the media concentration control system by Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the media concentration gateway in FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the media information provision apparatus in FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of media information transfer processing by the media concentration gateway according to the first embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the process by the transmission right transfer means in FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the media concentration gateway by Embodiment 2 of this invention. 10 is a flowchart illustrating transmission right assignment processing by the media concentration gateway according to the second embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically illustrating processing in which a media concentration gateway according to Embodiment 2 receives media information from a media information providing apparatus. It is a graph which shows the example of a state value variation of each media information in the media concentration gateway in FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the media concentration gateway by Embodiment 3 of this invention. FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically illustrating processing in which a media concentration gateway according to Embodiment 3 receives media information from a media information providing apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the process by the transmission right transfer means in FIG. It is a figure which shows typically the process in which the media concentration gateway by Embodiment 4 of this invention receives media information from a media information provision apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the process by the transmission right transfer means in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  101-108, 301, 601-604, 801-806, 1001-1006 Media information providing apparatus, 111-114, 121, 122, 131, 201-203, 302, 605, 807-809, 1007-1009 Gateway, 141 policy server, 142 media information display device, 204 transmission source management means, 205 transmission destination management means, 206 priority policy setting means, 207 transmission right distribution means, 208 media information reception means, 209 transfer control means, 210 transmission Right allocation means, 211 Media information transmission means, 212 Status value information reception means, 213 Status value setting means, 214 Status value information transmission means, 215 Transmission right transfer means, 216 Transmission right request means, 217 Transmission right assignment request means, 218 Transmission right deletion means, 2 9 transcoding means, 220 media information storage means, 302 transmission destination management means, 304 priority policy setting means, 305 sensor, 306 priority notification means, 307 media information transmission means, 308 video / audio information input device, 606,607 Right to send, 611-614, 811-816, 821, 822, 824, 825, 831, 832, 834, 835, 1011, 1012, 1014, 1015, 1021, 1022, 1024, 1025, 1031, 1032, 1034, 1035 Media information, 701 to 704 State value fluctuation, 705 threshold, 706 Grant state area, 707 to 712 State value, 841 to 843 State value information, 851 to 858 Transmission right, 1051, 1052, 1055, 1058 to 1060 Preliminary transmission right, 10 3,1054,1056,1057,1061～1064 general transmission right.

Claims (20)

A media concentrator comprising: a media information providing device that provides media information; a media information display device that reproduces and displays the media information; and a media concentrator gateway that relays media information exchange between the devices via a network. In the control system,
The media concentrator gateway is
Media information receiving means for receiving the media information;
Transfer control means for controlling transfer of the media information;
A media concentration control system comprising: media information transmission means for transferring media information via the network according to control by the transfer control means. Connected between multiple media information providing devices and media information display devices in a tree structure with multiple media concentrator gateways connected to each other via a network,
A policy server that connects to any of the networks and notifies a priority policy that defines the priority of each media information providing device and each media concentrating gateway in the system;
The media concentrating gateway and the media information providing device are:
Priority policy setting means for receiving a priority policy from the policy server via the network and setting the priority policy to itself;
The media information providing apparatus includes:
2. The media concentration control system according to claim 1, further comprising priority notification means for determining priority of media information and notifying the media concentration gateway as priority information. The media concentration gateway distributes the transmission right distribution of the media information of the system determined by the number of reproducible media or the receivable communication band of the media information display device to the gateway based on the priority policy. With means,
The transfer control means includes a transmission right assigning means for assigning a transmission right to the media information within the range of the number of transmission rights distributed to the gateway or within a communication band that can be transmitted based on the priority specified from the priority information. ,
3. The media concentration control system according to claim 2, wherein the media information transmission means transfers only the media information to which the transmission right is assigned by the transmission right assignment means. In a media concentration gateway that mediates between a media information providing device that provides media information and a media information display device that reproduces and displays the media information, and relays exchange of media information between the devices via a network.
Media information receiving means for receiving the media information;
Transfer control means for controlling transfer of the media information;
A media concentrating gateway comprising: media information transmitting means for transferring media information via the network according to control by the transfer control means.   5. The media concentration gateway according to claim 4, wherein the transfer control means controls transfer according to the priority assigned to the media information.   Priority policy setting means for receiving a priority policy that defines the priority of the media information providing apparatus and the media concentrating gateway and setting the priority policy in its own gateway; the number of reproducible media of the media information display apparatus or receivable communication 5. The media concentration gateway according to claim 4, further comprising transmission right distribution means for distributing the number of transmission rights of media information determined by the band to the gateway based on the priority policy. The transfer control means includes a transmission right assigning means for assigning a transmission right to the media information according to the priority given to the media information,
7. The media concentration gateway according to claim 6, wherein the media information transmission means transfers only the media information to which the transmission right is assigned.   8. The media collection according to claim 7, wherein the transmission right allocating unit allocates the transmission right to other media information according to the priority of the media information when a valid time of the transmission right allocated to the media information elapses. Trust gateway.   When the transmission right allocating means receives media information having a high priority, if the transmission right has already been assigned to the media information and the effective time has expired, the effective time is reset and the transmission right is assigned. 9. The media concentration gateway according to claim 8, wherein if it is not set, the transmission right assigned to other media information having a lower priority than the media information is canceled and the transmission right is assigned.   7. The media concentration gateway according to claim 6, further comprising transmission right transfer means for exchanging transmission right with another media concentration gateway. The transmission right transfer means includes a transmission right request means for transmitting a transmission right request signal to another media concentration gateway, and a priority of the media information transmitted to the own gateway in response to the transmission right request signal. A transmission right transfer request means for extracting low media information and transmitting a transfer request signal for requesting transfer of the transmission right to the media concentrating gateway that is transmitting the low media information, and according to the transfer request signal A transmission right deleting means for canceling the assignment of the transmission right of the media information designated by the signal,
11. The media concentrating gateway according to claim 10, wherein the transmission right assigning means assigns the transmission right corresponding to the deallocation to the media information. A state value setting means for setting, in the media information, a state value that changes with time according to priority;
7. The media concentration gateway according to claim 6, wherein the transmission right assigning means assigns a transmission right to the media information according to the state value.   The state value setting means sets an increase rate corresponding to the priority to the state value for the media information in which the state value is set lower than the threshold value for specifying the state value to which the transmission right should be assigned. The media information having a state value exceeding the threshold value is increased with the passage of time, and the rate of decrease according to the priority is set to the state value and lowered with the passage of time. Item 13. The media concentration gateway according to item 12. The transmission right allocating means releases the transmission right allocated to the media information in which the state value below the threshold is set,
14. The media concentration gateway according to claim 13, wherein the status value setting means resets the status value of the media information for which transmission right assignment has been canceled to a constant initial value.   15. The media concentration gateway according to claim 14, wherein the state value setting means determines an initial value of the state value of the media information according to a time when the transmission right is set in the media information.   14. The media concentration gateway according to claim 13, wherein the state value setting means determines a threshold value of the state value according to the number of transmission rights distributed to the gateway. State value information transmitting means for transmitting the state value information of the media information held in the gateway to the destination, and state value information receiving means for receiving the state value information from the state value information transmitting means of the other media concentration gateway; With
The transmission right moving means searches for the lowest state value among the state values specified by the state value information received by the state value information receiving means and exceeding the threshold of the state value to which the transmission right should be assigned. If the status value is less than or equal to the movement determination threshold value for determining whether or not the transmission right can be transferred, a request is made to transfer the transmission right to the media concentration gateway that is transmitting the media information for which the state value is set. A transmission right transfer request means for transmitting a transfer request signal;
13. The transmission right allocating unit, when the transmission right requested by the transmission right moving unit is released, allocates the transmission right corresponding to the state value of the media information. Media concentrator gateway. The transmission right distribution means determines the number of the entire system based on the number of media that can be reproduced by the media information display device or the receivable communication band, and defines the transmission right distributed based on the priority policy as the general transmission right. When the gateway can send and receive media information equal to or greater than the general transmission right, it distributes the preliminary transmission right in addition to the general transmission right,
When the media concentrating gateway receives the media information to which the preliminary transmission right is assigned, the media concentrating gateway searches for the media information having the lowest priority among the media information to which the general transmission right is received received by the gateway, A transmission right transfer means for canceling the allocation of the general transmission right and notifying the sender of the preliminary transmission right to that effect;
The transmission right allocating means allocates the preliminary transmission right to the media information to be transmitted when there is no general transmission right to be allocated according to the priority of the media information, and sends another media concentrating gateway as a reply of transmission by the preliminary transmission right 8. The media concentrator gateway according to claim 7, wherein when the general transmission right is released from the transmission right transfer means, the corresponding general transmission right is assigned to the media information.   5. The media concentration gateway according to claim 4, further comprising media information storage means for storing media information received by the media information receiving means.   5. The media concentration gateway according to claim 4, further comprising transcoding means for controlling an amount of media information.

Images