JP2023508744A - Packetized data communication over multiple unreliable channels - Google Patents

Abstract

Receiving multiple copies of the serial bitstream, the serial bitstream comprising a sequence of data packets, and successively splitting each copy of the serial bitstream based on successive time windows. for each of the time windows, aligning data packets associated with each of the serial bitstream replicas received within the time window based at least in part on the data packet similarity; recreating the serial bitstream in real time by selecting at least one of the aligned data packets as representing the next data packet in the sequence of packets. [Selection drawing] Fig. 1

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. Claiming priority benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

The present invention generally relates to data communications. More specifically, the present invention relates to using multiple unreliable communication channels for data communication.

When sending data over a packetized network, some packets may arrive dropped or corrupted. In general, a packetized network or channel may involve dividing content to be transmitted into packets or messages, transmitting the packets or messages, and reconstructing the content by a receiver based on the packets.

To overcome packet loss or corruption, some known systems and methods transmit some or even all packets more than once. However, sending the same data more than once is usually a wasteful way to overcome errors. Other methods, such as Forward Error Correction (FEC), may allow a limited number of errors to be detected and may also allow the receiver to correct some of the errors, but such methods comes at the cost of increased computational resources and sender-side complexity.

Both the stream duplication method and the FEC method associate a sequence number or other identifier with the packets and use those identifiers to reconstruct the stream of packets according to the correct (or original) order or sequence. However, such a method is inappropriate if the packets are not numbered or sequenced.

The foregoing examples of related art and limitations associated therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the specification and studying the figures.

The following embodiments and aspects thereof are described and illustrated in conjunction with systems, tools, and methods that are meant to be exemplary and illustrative rather than limiting in scope.

In one embodiment, receiving a plurality of replicas of a serial bitstream, the serial bitstream comprising a sequence of data packets, and each replica of the serial bitstream based on successive time windows. and for each of the time windows, aligning data packets associated with each of the serial bitstream replicas received within the time window based at least in part on the data packet similarity. and recreating the serial bitstream in real time by selecting at least one of the aligned data packets as representing the next data packet in the sequence of data packets; A method is provided.

Also, in one embodiment, a system comprising at least one hardware processor and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium embodying program code for receiving multiple copies of the serial bitstream. wherein the serial bitstream comprises a sequence of data packets; successively dividing each copy of the serial bitstream based on successive time windows; and for each of the time windows , aligning data packets associated with each serial bitstream replica received within the time window based at least in part on the data packet similarity; recreating the serial bitstream in real time by selecting at least one of the aligned data packets to represent; and a computer-readable storage medium.

In one embodiment, a computer program product including a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium embodying program instructions, the program instructions for receiving multiple copies of a serial bitstream, the serial bitstream comprising: , comprising a sequence of data packets; successively dividing each of the serial bitstream replicas based on successive time windows; aligning the data packets associated with each of the serial bitstream replicas received within the time window, and aligning the aligned data packets as representing the next data packet in the sequence of data packets. Recreating the serial bitstream in real time by selecting at least one of the computer program products executable by at least one hardware processor is further provided.

Each of the multiple copies of the serial bitstream is connected to a private IP network, a public IP network, the Internet, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network, a local area network (LAN), and a metropolitan area network (MAN). , a wide area network (WAN), a wireless network, a satellite communication network, a cellular communication network, a Bluetooth communication channel, and a Wi-Fi network; A computer program product according to claim 15.

In some embodiments, each of the multiple copies of the serial bitstream is transmitted over a different communication channel.

In some embodiments, each of the communication channels is a private IP network, a public IP network, the Internet, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network, a Local Area Network (LAN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN). ), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless network, a satellite communication network, a cellular communication network, a Bluetooth communication channel, and a Wi-Fi network.

In some embodiments, aligning includes placing data packets received within the time window into columns of an alignment score matrix based at least in part on data packet similarity, wherein each row of the matrix is , represents one of the replicas of the serial bitstream.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises assigning, the program instructions to assign an alignment score to each of the columns based on one of data packet gaps and data packet mismatches within the column It is even more feasible.

In some embodiments, for each column of the matrix, the selection is based, at least in part, on a consensus determined by data packet similarity of a majority of the data packets of the column.

In some embodiments, data packet similarity is determined based at least in part on comparing data packet contents, where the data packet contents are represented by a hash function.

In addition to the exemplary aspects and embodiments described above, further aspects and embodiments will become apparent by reference to the figures and by study of the following detailed description.

Non-limiting examples of embodiments of the present disclosure are described below with reference to the figures attached hereto that follow this paragraph. Identical features that appear in more than one figure are usually labeled with the same label in all the figures in which they appear. A label indicating a label on an icon representing a given feature of embodiments of the present disclosure in the figures may be used to refer to the given feature. Dimensions of features shown in the figures are chosen for convenience and clarity of presentation and are not necessarily shown to scale. For example, the dimensions of some elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity, or some physical components may be included in one functional block or element. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.

The subject matter regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. The invention, however, both as to organization and method of operation, together with objects, features and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals indicate corresponding, similar or similar elements, in which: , as shown below.

1 shows a block diagram of a system according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention; FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of a method according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention;

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, and components, modules, units and/or circuits have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the invention. Some features or elements described with respect to one embodiment may be combined with features or elements described with respect to other embodiments. For the sake of clarity, discussion of the same or similar features or elements may not be repeated.

For example, although embodiments of the present invention are not limited in this respect, terms such as "process", "calculate", "calculate", "determine", "probably", "analyze", "test", etc. Description refers to data represented as physical quantities (e.g., electrical quantities) in computer registers and/or memory or other information that may store instructions to perform actions and/or processes. It may refer to the operation and/or processing of a computer, computer platform, computer system or other electronic computing device that manipulates and/or transforms other data similarly represented as physical quantities in a non-transitory storage medium. As used herein, the terms "plurality" and "plurality" may include, for example, "many" or "two or more," although embodiments of the present invention are not limited in this respect. The terms "plurality" or "plurality" may be used throughout the specification to describe two or more components, devices, elements, units, parameters, and the like. A term established as used herein may include one or more items.

Unless explicitly stated, the method embodiments described herein are not constrained to a particular order or chronological order in time. Moreover, some of the method elements described may occur or be performed at the same time, at the same time, or at the same time. Some of the described method elements may be skipped or repeated during the sequence of operations of the method.

A system, method, and computer program product for real-time error recovery in data streaming are disclosed.

In some embodiments, the present disclosure streams a replicated serialized data stream, e.g., in the form of data packets, from a sender over two or more different communication paths or channels, and separates the individual channels It provides seamless reconstruction of data packets by the receiver from the duplicated received stream to correct errors in any of .

The present disclosure may be particularly useful in the field of packetized video streaming, eg, MPEG transport streams over noisy and/or lossy networks such as the Internet. Thus, in some embodiments, the present disclosure may provide live broadcast quality video over the Internet with robust hitless failover capabilities.

In some embodiments, the present disclosure can recover data even considering complete channel impairments and can be used with simple independent transmission units without the need to modify the payload they transmit. , providing simple and scalable processing.

In some embodiments, multiple routes may be generated by transmission channels that are replicated over multiple communication channels. In some embodiments, multiple receiver units listen to a single transmission over the broadcast medium using, for example, multiple wireless receiver stations at different locations tuned to the same source signal. Can generate routes.

In some embodiments, error recovery is based, for example, on another and/or similar method for defining and/or synchronizing and/or aligning time windows, arrival times, content, and/or data packets. , can be achieved by aligning data packets received over multiple communication channels.

In some embodiments, data packet alignment includes arranging packets received over multiple channels such that identical or similar packets are aligned.

In some embodiments, data packet alignment may be performed using a sequence alignment algorithm, which selects the most likely sequence of source packets that best describes the packet sequence observed in the time window. do. In some embodiments, sequence alignment is a way of arranging packet sequences into columns of a matrix with possible gaps between packets in the way identical or similar packets are aligned into rows of the matrix.

In some embodiments, packet alignment can be used to overcome packet loss in one or more channels. For example, if a packet does not exist (or is not represented) in the first stream, but is present or represented in one or more other streams, the receiver may consider the packet lost in the first stream. It may decide and may choose to include packets as represented by other streams. Thus, for example, when aligned, a third packet received from a first channel would be aligned with a third packet received from a second channel. If a third packet is missing in another channel, the receiver determines that this packet was lost in that channel and selects one of the corresponding third packets for inclusion in the reconstructed stream. can be selected.

In some embodiments, once the alignment is achieved, the alignment is used to select consensus packets in the queue in the presence of packet corruption, thereby determining their corresponding existing in the corresponding channel. can be used to create a unified sequence that fills the gaps of missing packets with packets of

In some embodiments, the alignment within time window algorithm maximizes a scoring function that penalizes gaps in alignment and imperfect matches (e.g., due to packet corruption). do. In some embodiments, the penalty for having long gaps is lower than the penalty for having multiple short gaps, and may capture typical correlations in consecutive packet loss events in IP networks.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary system 100 for real-time error recovery in data streaming, according to some embodiments of the invention. As shown, data from a sender (or source) 110 may be transmitted to a receiver (or destination) 120 over a number of communication channels 140 over network 130 . Sender 110 and receiver 120 may be any applicable computing device, such as a server, camera, smart phone, or home computer. It will be appreciated that embodiments of the present invention are not limited by the nature or type of sender or source 110 and/or by the nature or type of receiver or destination 120 . Although only one sender 110 and one receiver 120 are shown for clarity and simplicity, embodiments may include any number of such nodes, e.g. It will be appreciated that sender 110 may send data to receiver 120 via communication channels similar to communication channel 140 . Communication channels 140 can be physical channels or routes (eg, routes can be or include wires, routers, etc.) or they can be logical channels or routes (eg, user datagram protocol (UDP) connection) and may be a combination of physical and logical channels.

Network 130 may be, include, or be part of a private IP network, or a public IP network, or the Internet, or a combination thereof. Additionally or alternatively, network 130 may be, include, or be part of a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network. For example, network 130 may include or comprise IP networks such as the Internet, GSM-related networks, and any equipment for bridging or otherwise connecting networks as is known in the art. Network 130 may include a public or private data network, a local area network (LAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wired or wireless network, a satellite communications network, a cellular communications network, any of the foregoing. and/or any other suitable means of communication, including or being part of. Thus, numerous elements of network 130 (eg, access points, base stations, communication satellites, GPS satellites, routers, and telephone switches) are implied but not shown. It will be appreciated that embodiments of the present invention are not limited by the nature or type of network 130 .

An embodiment may provide error recovery by streaming data packets from the sender using two or more different routes or channels and seamlessly reconstructing the data packets by the receiver. Generally, the original stream of packets (sent by the sender, eg, sender 110) is reconstructed by the receiver (eg, receiver 120) based on multiple duplicated received streams. Note that one embodiment can correctly reconstruct the original stream even if packet sequence numbers or other ordering information is not available.

Multiple routes are multiple receiving units listening to a single transmission over a broadcast medium using, for example, multiple radio receiving stations at different locations tuned to the same source signal, or duplicate transmissions. can be either As noted, roots can be physical roots and/or logical roots.

In some embodiments, receiver 120 aligns packets according to time windows or time intervals. For example, streams of packets were received from multiple channels at exemplary 50 ms time intervals. So, for example, packets received during the time interval 10:00:00:00 (HR:MIN:SEC:MILL) to 10:00:00:50 are aligned, then from 10:00:00:51 The streams of packets received from multiple channels during the time interval up to 10:00:00:100 are aligned and repeated. Any technique or mechanism for defining and/or synchronizing times and/or time slots, intervals or windows may be used. Aligning the packets in a time-limited window allows the stream to be reconstructed continuously in real-time (compared to offline) and reduces computational complexity. Based on the alignment, the receiver selects the sequence of packets that is most likely the original sequence sent by the sender.

In general, alignment, or sequence alignment, as referred to herein involves queuing packets received across multiple channels, each channel streaming such that the same or similar packets are queued in a separate matrix column. are represented by the rows of the matrix. For example, when aligned, the third packet (within the current time window) received from the first channel 140 is in the same column as the third packet received from the second channel 140 . If the same packet appears, for example, in two separate columns (each representing its respective channel), but is missing in the third column (representing the third channel), the receiver will: Having determined that a packet was lost or dropped in the third channel, one of the packets appearing in the other two columns may be selected for inclusion in the reconstructed stream.

In some embodiments, the actual contents of packets may be used in the alignment process. For example, a hash function or other function may be used to represent the content of the packets, and alignment refers to checking whether packets in the same column have the same content, e.g., by comparing hash values. may contain. For example, packets for inclusion in the reconstructed stream may be selected based on the majority of lines containing the same content in the packets. For example, if the content of packets in column 6 in multiple rows (representing multiple streams for each) is the same and is different than the content of packets in column 6 in a single row representing additional streams ( If determined by the receiver 120), the receiver may assume that packets in the additional stream were corrupted in transit and be ignored. Thus, the receiver may select one of the six same-stream packets for inclusion in the reconstructed stream from any of the several streams.

An embodiment may use alignment as described to overcome packet loss. For example, if no packet is present (or not represented) in the first row/column pair representing the first stream, but a packet is present or represented in the same column of one or more other streams, then the receive A side may determine that a packet was lost or dropped in the first stream and choose to include the packet represented by the other stream.

In some embodiments, the receiver may use scoring functions and/or thresholds in the alignment process. For example, after arranging the packets in a matrix as described, the scoring function may calculate time window values based on gaps and/or based on content discrepancies. For example, a gap could be the absence of a packet in a column as written, and a mismatch could be different content within the same column as written. In some embodiments, a scoring function and/or a threshold is used to determine whether alignment of the set of packets for each stream is achieved.

Any scoring function, algorithm or logic may be used to align the sets of packet sequences received from each set of streams or channels without departing from the scope of the present invention. It will be appreciated that the specific algorithms discussed herein are but one example of alignment algorithms that may be used.

In some embodiments, the alignment algorithm uses a packet similarity score for/when comparing the payloads of two packets and a score (or penalty) for inserting (or representing) gaps between packets. and to use. In some embodiments, the similarity function relies on the likelihood or probability that the source packets are identical given the values of the observed packets given the probabilistic properties of the communication channel. . For example, if the channel is an erasure channel (packets can be dropped, packets cannot be corrupted), the scoring function is 1 if the payloads of the compared packets are identical, can be a scoring function that returns 0 (representing the likelihood of packet loss), minus infinity if the packets are dissimilar (representing the uncorruptible likelihood of the packet). If packet bit reversal (e.g., 0 becomes 1) is allowed in the associated channel, the similarity of the packets is the Hamming distance between the packet payloads, i.e., the payload of the first packet is the payload of the second packet. It may depend on how different it is from the payload.

For clarity and simplicity, we describe here a simplified case of aligning two sequences of packets received from two streams. In general, a method of aligning packet sequences and determining or identifying the original (source) packet sequence is to align one of the two sequences with the other in a manner that maximizes a score function for aligning the sequences using a dynamic programming approach. is placed on top of the

との、２つのシーケンスＳ_１、Ｓ_２に対して、この方法は、

の二次元行列Ｍを構築する。 For example, size (number of packets)

and for two sequences S ₁ , S ₂ , the method

Construct a two-dimensional matrix M of

Assuming a similarity function σ and a penalty for inserting a gap of length x _Gx , the method initializes the matrix M according to the following equation.

Note that the initialization of matrix M as above includes the penalty of starting the alignment with gaps. The remaining matrix cells are filled by choosing the maximum value between the three previously calculated values, as shown below.

In the above, the first term computes the score when matching packets S ₁ (i) and S ₂ (j), and the second and third terms rely on previously computed values. , represents the score when inserting a gap (dropped sequence of packets) of length x before S ₁ (i) or S ₂ (j), respectively.

が最適整列スコアを保持することになる。 With the maxima described in this way, each M _i,j cell of the matrix M contains the best scores of the subsets S ₁ (1..i) and S ₂ (1..j) to align. ,

will hold the best alignment score.

におけるスコアを最大化する決定をバックトラッキングすることによって、逆の順序で行われる。当技術分野で知られているように、バックトラッキング処理では、同じ最大スコアに至る複数のパスが存在し得る。本明細書に記載する方法は、Ｍの最大スコアをもたらすパスを識別するために使用することができる。 In some embodiments, constructing, identifying, or selecting an alignment of packet sequences comprises:

The reverse order is done by backtracking the decision that maximizes the score in . As is known in the art, there can be multiple paths to the same maximum score in the backtracking process. The methods described herein can be used to identify the path that yields the maximum score of M.

For example, at each backtracking step, one method is to record or retrieve the previous or last selected cell that maximized the score of cell (i,j). For efficiency, a pointer to the previous or last cell that led to the maximum score can be stored in the construction stage matrix cell.

The two aligned sequences are then built from tail to head according to the logic that follows.
If matrix cell (i,j) moves to matrix cell (i-1,j-1), then packet S ₁ (i) is added to the first ordered sequence and packet S ₂ (j) is Appended to the second aligned sequence.
If matrix cell (i,j) moves to cell (ix,j), add packet S ₁ (i) to the first sequence and add a gap of length x to the second sequence .
If cell (i,j) of the matrix moves to cell (i,j−x), then a gap of length x is added to the first sequence and packet S ₂ (j) is added to the second sequence. be done. The process ends when the end of the matrix is reached.

The output of the backtracking process is two sequences of packets, one on top of the other, with possible gaps in places.

Aligning more than two sequences can be done in a similar fashion using higher dimensional matrices. Some improvement measures can be considered, but it is also possible to achieve faster approximate alignment, for example, by repeatedly aligning pairs of sequences.

The output of the above alignment process is the consensus sequence between all sequences within the search window. To build a consensus sequence, there is a method of selecting the most likely packet by majority vote (or bitwise majority vote) in each column of the alignment. As an example, suppose a packet is 1 byte long and σ, S1 _{, S2} and _Gx are as shown below.

In this exemplary case, G _x =x, so the score for inserting a large gap is equivalent to the score for inserting multiple small gaps. Therefore, to calculate the score in the backtracking process as described, the immediately left neighbor, the upper neighbor, the diagonally upper left cell, and the backtracking process should be considered when filling the score matrix.

For the above example, the score matrix initialized and filled according to the described dynamic programming logic would be:

Backtracking from the last cell (value -1) requires moving up, left, or diagonally up and down cells, following the path with the highest current cell score. Following the backtracking process, the following sequence is generated from back to front.

Based on the aligned sequences, the reconstructed consensus sequence looks like this:

Various logics and heuristics may be used. For example, the penalty for having long gaps (e.g., reducing the value calculated as described) may be lower than the penalty for having multiple short gaps, thus e.g. It is possible to compensate for typical correlations in consecutive packet loss events.

As discussed, any scoring function may be used without departing from the scope of the invention, e.g., other embodiments may use scoring The function decrements the initial value for each gap or discrepancy identified, and if the resulting value is above a threshold, the receiver indicates that proper alignment has been achieved (and thus the stream is reconstructed for the relevant time window). can be determined). If the value produced by the scoring function is below a threshold (e.g. due to many corrupted or lost packets), the receiver may decide that the stream cannot be reconstructed correctly and the receiver may take further action, For example, it can request retransmission, select one of the unaligned sequences, warn the user, and the like.

In some embodiments, the scoring function may be automatically selected based on channel 140 type or attributes. For example, a first set of factors and/or thresholds may be used for channels implemented over physical wires (e.g., less prone to packet loss and corruption), over wireless infrastructure A second set of factors and/or thresholds may be used for the implemented channel.

In some embodiments, the method may be automatically selected based on channel 140 type or attributes. For example, if channel 140 is known to be relatively reliable, a match of two or three columns may be sufficient to determine that receiver 120 found the correct packet, but channel 140 is known to be unreliable. , the receiver 120 may need 4 or 5 matching packets. Accordingly, an embodiment can automatically adjust or select the logic for reconstructing the stream based on the attributes of the communication channel used.

In another case, if it is known (e.g., based on the infrastructure used) that packets may be lost or dropped, but will not be corrupted, then the sender and receiver can automatically revert to using only two channels. The sender and receiver can automatically choose to use three channels if packet corruption is likely to occur. Therefore, the number of channels 140 can be automatically selected.

Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a flowchart of a method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The same content may be transmitted over multiple communication channels, as indicated by block 210 . For example, content captured from a video camera can be divided into packets and each packet can be sent over multiple network connections. The received packets may be aligned, as indicated by block 215 . For example, the receiver 120 receives packets over a number of channels 140, queues the received packets, and performs shifts or other operations until optimal alignment is achieved. In some embodiments, aligning may involve simply arranging the packets in a queue and determining the level of alignment exhibited by the packets, as described. As indicated by block 220, the content transmitted over the channel as described may be reconstructed based on the alignment. For example, packets to be included in the reconstructed stream can be selected based on the alignment of the packets in the matrix, as described.

Descriptions of embodiments of the invention in this application are provided by way of illustration and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. While certain features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes, and equivalents will now occur to those skilled in the art. Various embodiments have been presented. Each of these embodiments can, of course, include features from other presented embodiments, and embodiments not specifically described can include various features described herein.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, aspects of the invention can be embodied as a system, method, or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may be described as an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. , all of which may be generically referred to herein as a "circuit," "module," or "system." Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program (embodied on one or more computer-readable media) having computer-readable program code embodied therein.

Any combination of one or more computer readable media may be utilized. A computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer-readable storage medium can be, for example, without limitation, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of any of the foregoing. More specific examples (non-exhaustive list) of computer-readable storage media include the following. portable computer diskettes; hard disks; random access memory (RAM); read only memory (ROM); erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM or flash); memory), optical fiber, portable compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), optical storage device, magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer-readable storage medium can be any tangible medium that can contain or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. .

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal having computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such propagated signals may take any of a variety of forms, including but not limited to electromagnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer-readable signal medium is not a computer-readable storage medium, but any computer-readable medium capable of carrying, propagating, or transferring a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. It can be used as a medium.

Program code embodied on computer readable medium may be any suitable medium including, but not limited to, wireless, wired, fiber optic cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of any of the foregoing. can be transmitted using

Computer program code for carrying out operations of aspects of the present invention includes object oriented programming languages such as Java, Smalltalk, C++, and conventional procedural programming languages such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. It can be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. Program code may reside entirely on the user's computer, partially on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partially on the user's computer and partially on a remote computer, or entirely on the user's computer. It can run on a remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer can connect to the user's computer via any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), or the connection can be to an external computer. (eg, over the Internet using an Internet service provider).

The present disclosure is described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a hardware processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, thereby rendering the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus The instructions executed by the processor of the are to produce the means for performing the functions/acts specified in the block or blocks of the flowchart and/or block diagrams.

Also, these computer program instructions can be stored on a computer-readable medium, thereby instructing a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to function in a particular manner. , thereby causing the instructions stored on the computer-readable medium to produce an article of manufacture including instructions for performing the functions/acts specified in the block or blocks of the flowchart and/or block diagrams. there is

Also computer-implemented by loading computer program instructions into a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to perform a sequence of operational steps on that computer, other programmable apparatus, or other device. Processes can be generated whereby instructions executing on a computer or other programmable device perform the functions/acts specified in a block or blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams. is designed to provide

The flowcharts and block diagrams in the figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block of a flowchart or block diagram can represent a module, segment, or portion of code that includes one or more executable instructions for performing the specified logical function. It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may be executed in the reverse order depending on the functionality involved. may Also, each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, and combinations of block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, depict special purpose hardware-based systems, or special purpose hardware and computers, that perform the specified functions or acts. It should be noted that it can be implemented by a combination of instructions.

The description of various embodiments of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the disclosed embodiments. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The terms used herein are used to best describe the principles of embodiments, practical applications, or technical improvements over the technology found on the market, or by those other than those skilled in the art as disclosed herein. It has been chosen so as to provide an understanding of the various embodiments.

In the description and claims of this application, the words "comprise," "include," and "have," and each of the forms thereof, necessarily refer to You are not limited to members in the list you get. Further, in the event of a conflict between the present application and any document incorporated by reference, the present application is hereby intended to control.

Claims (21)

a method,
receiving multiple copies of a serial bitstream, the serial bitstream comprising a sequence of data packets;
successively dividing each of said replicas of said serial bitstream based on successive time windows;
For each of the time windows, aligning the data packets associated with each of the replicas of the serial bitstream received within the time window based at least in part on data packet similarity;
recreating the serial bitstream in real time by selecting at least one of the aligned data packets as representing a next data packet in the sequence of data packets. . 2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said multiple copies of said serial bitstream is transmitted over a different communication channel. Each of said communication channels comprises a private IP network, a public IP network, the Internet, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network, a local area network (LAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), and a wide area network. (WAN), wireless networks, satellite communication networks, cellular communication networks, Bluetooth communication channels, and Wi-Fi networks. The aligning includes placing the data packets received within a time window into columns of an alignment score matrix based at least in part on the data packet similarity, each row of the matrix representing the serial A method according to any preceding claim, representing one of said replicas of a bitstream. 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising assigning an alignment score to each of the columns based on one of data packet gaps and data packet mismatches within the column. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein for each column of said matrix, said selecting is based at least in part on a consensus determined by data packet similarity of a majority of data packets of said column. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein said data packet similarity is determined based at least in part on a comparison of data packet contents, said data packet contents being represented by a hash function. a system,
at least one hardware processor;
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium embodying program code, the program code comprising:
receiving multiple copies of a serial bitstream, the serial bitstream comprising a sequence of data packets;
successively dividing each of said replicas of said serial bitstream based on successive time windows;
For each of the time windows, aligning the data packets associated with each of the replicas of the serial bitstream received within the time window based at least in part on data packet similarity;
recreating the serial bitstream in real-time by selecting at least one of the aligned data packets as representing the next data packet in the sequence of data packets. a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium executable by at least one hardware processor. 9. The system of claim 8, wherein each of said multiple copies of said serial bitstream is transmitted over a different communication channel. Each of said communication channels comprises a private IP network, a public IP network, the Internet, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network, a local area network (LAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), and a wide area network. (WAN), wireless networks, satellite communication networks, cellular communication networks, Bluetooth communication channels, and Wi-Fi networks. The aligning includes placing the data packets received within a time window into columns of an alignment score matrix based at least in part on the data packet similarity, each row of the matrix representing the serial A system according to any one of claims 8 to 10, representing one of said replicas of a bitstream. 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions are further executable to assign an alignment score to each of the columns based on one of data packet gaps and data packet mismatches within the columns. 13. The system of claim 12, wherein for each column of said matrix, said selecting is based at least in part on a consensus determined by data packet similarity of a majority of data packets of said column. The system of any one of claims 8-13, wherein the data packet similarity is determined based at least in part on a comparison of data packet contents, the data packet contents being represented by a hash function. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium embodying program instructions, the program instructions for:
receiving multiple copies of a serial bitstream, the serial bitstream comprising a sequence of data packets;
successively dividing each of said replicas of said serial bitstream based on successive time windows;
For each of the time windows, aligning the data packets associated with each of the replicas of the serial bitstream received within the time window based at least in part on data packet similarity;
and recreating the serial bitstream in real time by selecting at least one of the aligned data packets as representing the next data packet in the sequence of data packets. , a computer program product executable by said at least one hardware processor. 16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein each of said multiple copies of said serial bitstream is transmitted over a different communication channel. Each of said communication channels comprises a private IP network, a public IP network, the Internet, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network, a local area network (LAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), and a wide area network. (WAN), wireless networks, satellite communications networks, cellular communications networks, Bluetooth communications channels, and Wi-Fi networks. The aligning includes placing the data packets received within a time window into columns of an alignment score matrix based at least in part on the data packet similarity, each row of the matrix representing the serial A computer program product as claimed in any one of claims 15 to 17, representing one of said copies of a bitstream. 19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the instructions are further executable to assign an alignment score to each of the columns based on one of data packet gaps and data packet mismatches within the columns. product. 19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein for each column of said matrix, said selecting is based at least in part on a consensus determined by data packet similarity of a majority of data packets of said column. The computer program product of any one of claims 15-20, wherein the data packet similarity is determined based at least in part on a comparison of data packet contents, the data packet contents being represented by a hash function. .

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