KR20220136343A - Packetized data communication over multiple unreliable channels - Google Patents

Abstract

The method includes: receiving a plurality of copies of a serial bit stream comprising a sequence of data packets; successively partitioning each of the copies of the serial bit stream based on sequential time windows; aligning, for each of the time windows, data packets associated with each of the copies of the received serial bit stream within the time window based at least in part on the data packet similarity; and regenerating the serial bit stream in real time by selecting at least one of the ordered data packets as representing a next data packet in the sequence of data packets.

Description

Packetized data communication over multiple unreliable channels

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority of U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 16/699,786, filed December 2, 2019, entitled "PACKETIZED DATA COMMUNICATION OVER MULTIPLE UNRELIABLE CHANNELS," which is entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMMUNICATING DATA." It is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Patent Application No. 16/359,016, filed March 20, 2019, with the title of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

field of invention

The present invention relates generally to data communication. More particularly, the present invention relates to using several unreliable communication channels to communicate data.

When sending data over packetized networks, some packets may arrive dropped or corrupted. In general, a packetized network or channel divides content to be sent into packets or messages, sends the packets or messages, and, based on the packets, by a receiving end It may relate to reorganizing the content.

To overcome loss or corruption of packets, some known systems and methods send some or even all packets more than once. However, sending the same data more than once is generally a wasteful way to overcome errors. Although other methods, for example forward error correction (FEC), make it possible to detect a limited number of errors and may further enable the receiver to correct some errors, these methods increase computational resources costs and sender complexity.

Both stream copy and FEC methods associate sequence numbers or other identifiers with packets and use the identifiers to reconstruct the stream of packets according to the correct (or original) order or sequence. However, these methods are inadequate when packets are not numbered or sequenced.

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

The following embodiments and aspects thereof are described and illustrated in conjunction with systems, tools, and methods that are intended to be representative and illustrative, and not limiting in scope.

In one embodiment, a method is provided, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of duplicates of a serial bit stream, the serial bit stream comprising a sequence of data packets; successively partitioning each of the copies of the serial bit stream based on sequential time windows; aligning, for each of the time windows, the data packets associated with each of the copies of the serial bit stream received within the time window based at least in part on the data packet similarity; and recreating the serial bit stream in real time by selecting at least one of the sorted data packets as representing a next data packet in the sequence of data packets.

In one embodiment, a system is also provided, the system comprising: at least one hardware processor; and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program code embedded therein, wherein the program code is configured by the at least one hardware processor to: receive a plurality of copies of a serial bit stream , wherein the serial bit stream comprises a sequence of data packets, and sequentially partitions each of the copies of the serial bit stream based on sequential time windows, wherein the data packet similarity for each of the time windows is at least in part sort the data packets associated with each of the copies of the serial bit stream received within the time window based on the selection of at least one of the sorted data packets as representing a next data packet in the sequence of data packets to regenerate the serial bit stream in real time.

In one embodiment, there is further provided a computer program product, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therein, the program instructions being executed by at least one hardware processor: a serial bit stream receive a plurality of copies of, the serial bit stream comprising a sequence of data packets; successively partition each of the copies of the serial bit stream based on sequential time windows; align, for each of the time windows, the data packets associated with each of the copies of the serial bit stream received within the time window based at least in part on data packet similarity; and regenerate the serial bit stream in real time by selecting at least one of the ordered data packets as representing a next data packet in the sequence of data packets.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein each of said plurality of copies of said serial bit stream comprises: a private IP network, a public IP network, the Internet, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network, a local area network (LAN: local area network: selected from the group consisting of a metropolitan area network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless network, a satellite communications network, a cellular communications network, a Bluetooth communications channel, and a Wi-Fi network. transmitted through different communication channels.

In some embodiments, each of the plurality of copies of the serial bit stream 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), is selected from the group consisting of a wireless network, a satellite communication network, a cellular communication network, a Bluetooth communication channel, and a Wi-Fi network.

In some embodiments, aligning comprises aligning the data packets received within a time window in columns of an alignment score matrix based at least in part on the data packet similarity. and each row in the matrix represents one of the copies of the serial bit stream.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises assigning an alignment score to each of the columns based on one of data packet gaps and data packet mismatches in the column; , the program instructions are further executable to assign the alignment score.

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

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

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

Non-limiting examples of embodiments of the present disclosure are described below with reference to the drawings appended hereto listed after this paragraph. The same feature appearing in more than one figure is generally marked with the same label in all figures in which the feature appears. Labels in the drawings labeling icons representing a given feature of an embodiment of the present disclosure may be used to refer to the given feature. Dimensions of features shown in the drawings are chosen for convenience and clarity of presentation, and are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity, or some physical components may be included in one functional block or element. Also, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated between the figures to indicate corresponding or similar elements.
Subject matter considered to be the present invention is particularly pointed out and is expressly claimed at the end of the specification. However, the objects, features and advantages of the present invention, both as to construction and method of operation, may be best understood by reference to the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the drawings of the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals indicate corresponding, similar or similar elements.
1 shows a block diagram of a system in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention.
2 shows a flowchart of a method according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present 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 in order not to obscure the present 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 clarity, discussion of the same or similar features or elements may not be repeated.

Although embodiments of the present invention are not limited in this regard, for example, discussions using terms such as “processing”, “computing”, “compute”, “determining”, “establishing”, “analyzing”, “checking”, etc. Data expressed as physical (eg, electronic) quantities in registers and/or memories of a computer are similarly expressed as physical quantities within registers and/or memories of a computer and/or other data or operations and/or operations. or operation(s) and/or process(s) of a computer, computing platform, computing system, or other electronic computing device that manipulates and/or transforms into another information non-transitory storage medium that can store instructions for performing processes can be referred to. The embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto, and the terms “plurality” and “plurality” used herein may include, for example, “a plurality of” or “two or more”. The term “plurality” or “plurality” may be used throughout the specification to describe two or more constituent elements, devices, elements, units, parameters, and the like. A term set as used herein may include one or more items.

Unless explicitly stated, the method embodiments described herein are not limited to a particular order or chronological sequence in time. Additionally, some of the described method elements may occur or be performed concurrently, at the same time, or concurrently. 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 are disclosed for real-time error recovery in data streaming.

In some embodiments, the present disclosure streams copied serialized data streams, e.g., in the form of data packets, from a sender, over two or more different communication routes or channels, It provides seamlessly reconstructing data packets by a receiver from the copied received streams to correct errors in any of the individual channels.

The present disclosure may be particularly useful in the realm of packetized video streaming, for example MPEG transport streams over noisy and/or lossy networks such as the Internet. Accordingly, 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 is simple, scalable, capable of recovering data even taking into account complete channel failures, and can be used with simple independent transmission units without the need to modify the payload they transmit. provide the process.

In some embodiments, multiple routes may be created by replicated transmission channels over multiple communication channels. In some embodiments, multiple receiving units listening for a single transmission over the broadcasting medium, using multiple wireless receiving stations at different locations tuned to the same source signal, for example Roots of can be created.

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

In some embodiments, data packet sorting includes sorting packets received over multiple channels such that identical or similar packets are sorted.

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

In some embodiments, packet alignment may be used to overcome packet loss in one or more of the channels. For example, if a packet is not present (or represented) in the first stream but is present or represented in one or more other streams, the receiver may determine that the packet is lost in the first stream, and the packet represented by the other streams may choose to include Thus, for example, when aligned, a third packet received from the first channel will be aligned with a third packet received from the second channel. If the third packet is dropped on the other channel, the receiver may determine that this packet is lost on that channel and may select one of the corresponding third packets for inclusion in the reconstructed stream.

In some embodiments, once alignment is achieved, using alignment, and by selecting consensus packets in a column in the presence of packet corruption, into corresponding existing packets in corresponding channels. It can be used to create a unified sequence that fills in the gaps of missing packets.

In some embodiments, the alignment algorithm within the time window maximizes a scoring function that provides a penalty for having a gap in alignment and having an incomplete match (eg, due to packet corruption). In some embodiments, the penalty for having a long gap may be lower than the penalty for having multiple short gaps, capturing the typical correlation in successive packet loss events in IP networks.

1 depicts an exemplary system 100 for real-time error recovery in data streaming, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. As shown, data from a sender (or source) 110 may be sent over a network 130 , to a receiver (or destination) 120 over a number of communication channels 140 . Transmitter 110 and receiver 120 may be any applicable computing device, eg, a server, camera, smartphone, 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 . For clarity and simplicity, only one transmitter 110 and one receiver 120 are shown, it is understood that embodiments may include any number of such nodes, e.g., multiple transmitters 110 It will be appreciated that may send data to receiver 120 via communication channels similar to communication channels 140 . Communication channels 140 may be physical channels or routes (eg, a path may be or include wires, routers, etc.) or they may be logical channels or routes (eg, For example, it may be a user datagram protocol (UDP) connection) or it may be a combination of a physical channel and a logical channel.

Network 130 may be, include, or be part of, a private or public IP network, 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 constitute IP networks such as the Internet, GSM-related networks, and any equipment for bridging or otherwise connecting such networks known in the art. Network 130 may be 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 communication network, a cellular communication network, preceding and/or any other It may be any combination of, include, or be part of any suitable communication means. Accordingly, multiple 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 .

One 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. In general, the original stream of packets (sent by an originator, eg, originator 110) is transmitted by a receiver (eg, receiver 120) based on a number of copied received streams. is reconstructed Note that embodiments can accurately reconstruct the original stream even when packet sequence numbers or other ordering information is not available.

The multiple routes may be a replicated transmission, or multiple receiving units listening for a single transmission over the broadcasting medium, using, for example, multiple wireless receiving stations at different locations tuned to the same source signal. have. As described, routes may be physical and/or logical routes.

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

In general, the alignment or sequence alignment referred to herein involves aligning packets received over multiple channels into a matrix, where each channel streaming is represented by a matrix row. , the same or similar packets are arranged in separate matrix columns. For example, when sorted, the third packet received from the first channel 140 (in the current time window) 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 rows (each representing a respective channel) but is missing in a third row (representing a third channel), the receiver indicates that the packet was lost on the third channel or It may be determined that it has been dropped, and one of the packets appearing in two different rows may be selected for inclusion in the reconstructed stream.

In some embodiments, the actual contents of the packets may be used in the sorting process. For example, a hash or other function may be used to represent the contents of packets, and sorting is to check whether packets in the same column have the same content, for example by comparing hash values. may include For example, a packet for inclusion in the reconstructed stream may be selected based on multiple rows containing the same content of the packet. For example, the content of the packet in column 6 in several rows (representing each of the different streams) is the same (by receiver 120), and the content of the packet in column 6 in a single row representing an additional stream is the same. If determined to be different from , the receiver can infer that packets in the additional stream are corrupted in transit and can be ignored. Thus, the receiver can select one of the packets in six identical streams for inclusion in the reconstructed stream from any of several streams.

One embodiment may use the alignment described to overcome packet loss. For example, if a packet is not present (or not represented) in the first row/column pair representing the first stream, but the packets are present or represented in the same column of one or more other streams, then the receiver indicates that the packet is lost in the first stream or It may determine that it has been dropped, and may choose to include packets represented by other streams.

In some embodiments, the receiver may use a scoring function and/or threshold in the alignment process. For example, arranging the packets in a matrix as described, the scoring function may calculate a value for the time window based on gaps and/or based on content mismatch. For example, a gap may be the absence of a packet within a column as described, and a discrepancy may be different content within the same column as described. In some embodiments, a scoring function and/or threshold is used to determine whether alignment of the set of packets of the respective set of streams is achieved.

Any scoring function, algorithm or logic may be used to order a set of packet sequences received from a respective set of streams or channels without departing from the scope of the present invention. It will be understood that the specific algorithms discussed herein are only examples of sorting algorithms that may be used.

In some embodiments, the sorting algorithm performs a packet similarity score for comparing/when comparing the payload of two packets, and a score (or penalty) for inserting (or representing) a gap between packets. ) is used. In some embodiments, the similarity function depends on the likelihood or probability that the source packets are the same given the values of the observed packets, taking into account the probabilistic properties of the communication channel. For example, if the channels are erased channels (dropped packets are possible and not corrupted packets), the scoring function is 1 if the payloads of the compared packets are equal, packet and gap (indicating the probability of packet loss). may be a scoring function that returns 0 when comparing ? If packet bit flips are possible in the relevant channels (eg 0 becomes 1), then the packet similarity is the Hamming distance between the packet payloads, i.e. the payload of the first packet is It may depend on how different it is from the payload of the second packet.

For simplicity and clarity, a simplified case of aligning two sequences of packets received from two streams is described herein. In general, a method of aligning packet sequences and determining or identifying the original (source) packet sequence uses a dynamic programming approach to separate two sequences in such a way as to maximize a score function for the alignment of the sequences. Sort one on top.

및

의 S₁, S₂로 표시된 두 시퀀스의 경우, 본 방법은 크기가

인 2차원 행렬 M을 구성한다.For example, size (number of packets)

and

For the two sequences denoted by S ₁ , S ₂ , the method has a size

to form a two-dimensional matrix M.

Assuming that the similarity function is σ and the penalty for inserting a gap of length x is G _x , the method initializes the matrix M according to the formula:

As shown above, initialization of matrix M includes the penalty of starting sorting with gaps. The remaining matrix cells are filled by selecting the largest of the three previously calculated values as follows:

In this case, the first term computes a score when matching packet S ₁ (i) with packet S ₂ (j), and terms 2 and 3 depend on previously calculated values, respectively, S ₁ (i) or S ₂ (j) represents the score for inserting a gap of length x (dropped sequence of packets) before (j).

는 최적의 정렬 스코어를 보유한다.Using maxima as described, each M _i,j cell of matrix M contains an optimal score that aligns subset S ₁ (1..i) with S ₂ (1..j),

holds the optimal alignment score.

에서 스코어를 최대화하는 결정을 역추적(backtrack)함으로써 역순으로 수행된다. 당업계에 알려진 바와 같이, 역추적 프로세스에서 동일한 최대 스코어로 이어지는 다중 경로가 있을 수 있다. 여기에 설명된 방법은 M에 대한 최대 스코어를 산출하는 경로를 식별하는 데 사용할 수 있다.In some embodiments, configuring, identifying, or selecting an alignment of a sequence of packets comprises:

It is performed in reverse order by backtracking the decision that maximizes the score in . As is known in the art, there may be multiple paths leading to the same maximum score in the traceback process. The method described herein can be used to identify the path that yields the maximum score for M.

For example, at each backtracking step, the method records or finds the previous or last selected cell that maximized the score in cell (i,j). For efficiency, a pointer to the previous or last cell leading to the maximum score may be stored in the matrix cell during the construction phase.

Next, two sorted sequences are constructed from end to beginning according to the following logic:

행렬 셀(i,j)이 행렬 셀(i-1,j-1)로 이동하면, 제1 정렬된 시퀀스에 패킷 S₁(i)이 추가되고, 제2 정렬된 시퀀스에 패킷 S₂(j)가 추가된다.

When matrix cell (i,j) moves to matrix cell (i-1,j-1), packet S ₁ (i) is added to the first sorted sequence, and packet S ₂ (j) is added to the second sorted sequence ) is added.

행렬 셀(i,j)이 셀(i-x,j)로 이동하면, 제1 시퀀스에 패킷 S₁(i)이 추가되고, 제2 시퀀스에 길이 x의 갭이 추가된다.

When matrix cell (i,j) moves to cell (ix,j), packet S ₁ (i) is added to the first sequence, and a gap of length x is added to the second sequence.

행렬 셀(i,j)이 셀(i,j-x)로 이동하면, 제1 시퀀스에 길이 x의 갭이 추가되고, 제2 시퀀스에 패킷 S₂(j)가 추가된다. 행렬의 에지에 도달하면 프로세스가 종료된다.

When matrix cell (i,j) moves to cell (i,jx), a gap of length x is added to the first sequence, and packet S ₂ (j) is added to the second sequence. When the edge of the matrix is reached, the process ends.

The output of the traceback process is a sequence of two packets, one above the other, with gaps in some locations.

Sorting three or more sequences can be done in a similar way using high-dimensional matrices. Some improvements may be considered, for example, faster approximate alignment may be achieved by iteratively aligning sequence pairs.

The output of the sorting process described above is the consensus sequence among all sequences in the search window. To construct a consensus sequence, in each column of the sort, the method selects the most probable packet by majority voting (or bitwise majority voting). For example, suppose the packet length is 1 byte, and σ, S ₁ , S ₂ and G _x are:

In this exemplary case, since G _x =x, the score for inserting large gaps is the same as the score for inserting multiple small gaps. Therefore, in order to calculate the score in the tracing process as described above, it is sufficient to consider the cells immediately adjacent to the upper left and the diagonal upper left in the tracing process and when filling the score matrix.

A score matrix initialized and populated according to the dynamic programming logic described in connection with the example above is as follows:

Backtracking from the last cell (value-1) requires moving up, left or diagonally up and left cells depending on the path that maximizes the current cell score. The ordered sequence according to the traceback process is generated from back to front and looks like this:

The consensus sequence reconstructed based on the sorted sequence is as follows:

Various logic and heuristics may be used. For example, a penalty for having a long gap (eg, reducing a calculated value as described) may be lower than a penalty with multiple short gaps, thus, for example, IP networks can compensate for typical correlations in successive packet loss events in .

As discussed, any scoring function may be used without departing from the scope of the present invention, for example, in other embodiments, rather than maximizing the score as described above, the scoring function may be used for each identified gap or The initial value for the discrepancy may be reduced, and if the resulting value exceeds a threshold, the receiver may determine that proper alignment has been achieved (thus the stream may be reconstructed for the relevant time window). If the value generated by the scoring function is below a threshold (eg, due to many corrupted or lost packets), the receiver can determine that the stream cannot be accurately reconstructed, and the receiver can take further actions, eg, retransmit , select one of the unordered sequences, and alert the user.

In some embodiments, the scoring functions may be automatically selected based on the type or properties of the channels 140 . For example, a first set of factors and/or thresholds may be used for channels implemented over physical wires (eg, where loss and corruption of packets is not likely), the second set of factors and/or thresholds may be used for channels implemented over the wireless infrastructure.

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

In other cases, if it is known that packets may be lost or dropped but cannot be corrupted (e.g., based on the infrastructure used), the sender and receiver automatically decide to use only two channels. can return If packet corruption is possible, the sender and receiver can automatically choose to use three channels. Accordingly, the number of channels 140 may be automatically selected.

Reference is made to FIG. 2 , which is a flowchart of a method according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention. As shown by block 210, the same content may be sent over a plurality of communication channels. For example, content obtained from a video camera may be divided into packets, each of which may be sent over several network connections. As shown by block 215 , the received packets may be sorted. For example, receiver 120 receives packets over multiple channels 140 , arranges the received packets in a matrix, and performs shifts or other operations until optimal alignment is achieved. In some embodiments, sorting may include simply arranging or placing the packets in a matrix as described and determining the level of alignment exhibited by the packets. As shown by block 220, content sent over channels as described may be reconstructed based on sorting. For example, packets to be included in the reconstructed stream may be selected based on the ordering of the packets in the matrix as described.

The description of embodiments of the invention in the present application is illustrative and does not limit the scope of the invention. While specific features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes, and equivalents will occur to those skilled in the art. Various embodiments have been presented. Each of these embodiments may of course include features from other embodiments presented, and embodiments not specifically described may include various features described herein.

As will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, aspects of the present invention may be implemented as a system, method, or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may be fully hardware embodiments, fully software embodiments (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or all herein generally referred to as “circuits,” “modules,” or “systems.” It may take the form of an embodiment combining possible software and hardware aspects. Aspects of the invention may also take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied therein.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be used. The 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, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination thereof. More specific examples (non-exhaustive list) of computer readable storage media may include: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM) ), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fiber, portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), optical storage device, magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination thereof. In the context of this document, a computer-readable storage medium may 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, as part of a baseband or carrier wave. Such a propagated signal 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 can be any computer-readable medium that can communicate, propagate, or transmit a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any suitable medium including, but not limited to, wireless, wireline, fiber optic cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination thereof.

The computer program code for performing the operations for aspects of the present invention is one comprising an object-oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++, etc. and conventional procedural programming languages such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. It can be written in any combination of the above programming languages. The program code may run entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a standalone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on a remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer via any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or may be connected to an external computer (eg, , over the Internet using an Internet service provider).

Aspects of the invention are 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 in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams, may 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 create a machine, such that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus are shown in the flowchart and/or block diagram create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored on a computer readable medium that can instruct a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particular way, such that the instructions stored on the computer readable medium include flowcharts and/or or block diagram blocks or blocks to create an article of manufacture including instructions that implement a specified function/action.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices such that a series of operational steps are performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus, or other devices to create a computer implemented process, the computer or Instructions executing on another programmable device may provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The flowcharts and block diagrams in the drawings illustrate the architecture, functionality and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code that includes one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, functions recited in blocks may arise from the order recited in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially simultaneously, or blocks may sometimes be executed in reverse order depending on the function involved. Each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, are special-purpose hardware-based systems, or special-purpose hardware, that perform specified functions or operations. and combinations of computer instructions.

The description of various embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed herein. 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 terminology used herein was chosen to best describe the principles of the embodiments, practical application or technical improvement to techniques found in the market, or to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein. .

In the description and claims of this application, each word "comprises", "comprises" and "has", and forms thereof, are not necessarily limited to the members in the list to which the words may be associated. Further, in the event of any inconsistency between this application and any document incorporated by reference, the present application is intended to control.

Claims (21)

In the method,
receiving a plurality of duplicates of a serial bit stream, the serial bit stream comprising a sequence of data packets;
successively partitioning each of the copies of the serial bit stream based on a sequential time window;
for each of the time windows, aligning the data packet associated with each of the copies of the serial bit stream received within the time window based at least in part on data packet similarity; and
and recreating the serial bit stream in real time by selecting at least one of the sorted data packets as representing a next data packet in the sequence of data packets. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of copies of the serial bit stream is transmitted over a different communication channel. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the 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), a wide area network (WAN); a method selected from the group consisting of a wireless network, a satellite communication network, a cellular communication network, a Bluetooth communication channel, and a Wi-Fi network. 4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the aligning comprises: based at least in part on the data packet similarity, in a column of an alignment score matrix, the received within a time window. and sorting data packets, wherein each row in the matrix represents one of the copies of the serial bit stream. 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising assigning an alignment score to each of the columns based on one of a data packet gap and a data packet mismatch in the column. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein for each column of the matrix, the selection is based, at least in part, on a consensus determined by a data packet similarity of a plurality of data packets within the column. 7. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the data packet similarity is determined based at least in part on a comparison of data packet contents, wherein the data packet contents are represented by a hash function. . In the system,
at least one hardware processor; and
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program code embedded therein, wherein the program code is executed by the at least one hardware processor;
receive a plurality of copies of a serial bit stream, the serial bit stream comprising a sequence of data packets;
successively partitioning each of the copies of the serial bitstream based on a sequential time window;
align, for each of the time windows, the data packet associated with each of the copies of the serial bit stream received within the time window based at least in part on data packet similarity, and
and regenerate the serial bit stream in real time by selecting at least one of the ordered data packets as representing a next data packet in the sequence of data packets. 9. The system of claim 8, wherein each of the plurality of copies of the serial bit stream is transmitted over a different communication channel. 10. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the 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), a wide area network (WAN); A system selected from the group consisting of a wireless network, a satellite communication network, a cellular communication network, a Bluetooth communication channel, and a Wi-Fi network. 11. The method of any of claims 8-10, wherein the alignment aligns the data packets received within a time window in a column of an alignment score matrix based at least in part on the data packet similarity. wherein each row of the matrix represents one of the copies of the serial bit stream. 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 a data packet gap and a data packet mismatch within the column. 13. The system of claim 12, wherein for each column of the matrix, the selection is based, at least in part, on a consensus determined by a data packet similarity of a plurality of data packets within the column. 14. The system of any of claims 8-13, wherein the data packet similarity is determined based at least in part on a comparison of data packet contents, wherein the data packet contents are represented by a hash function. . A computer program product comprising: a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therein, the program instructions being executed by at least one hardware processor;
receive a plurality of duplicates of a serial bit stream, the serial bit stream comprising a sequence of data packets;
successively partition each of the copies of the serial bit stream based on a sequential time window;
align, for each of the time windows, the data packet associated with each of the copies of the serial bit stream received within the time window based at least in part on data packet similarity; and
and regenerate the serial bit stream in real time by selecting at least one of the ordered data packets as representing a next data packet in the sequence of data packets. 16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein each of the plurality of copies of the serial bit stream is transmitted over a different communication channel. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein 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 city area network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN) , a computer program product selected from the group consisting of a wireless network, a satellite communication network, a cellular communication network, a Bluetooth communication channel, and a Wi-Fi network. 18. The method of any one of claims 15-17, wherein the alignment is based, at least in part, on the data packet similarity by placing, in a column of an alignment score matrix, the data packets received within the time window. sorting, wherein each row in the matrix represents one of the copies of the serial bit stream. 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 a data packet gap and a data packet mismatch within the column. 19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein for each column of the matrix, the selection is based, at least in part, on a consensus determined by a data packet similarity of a majority of data packets within the column. 21. The computer of any of claims 15-20, wherein the data packet similarity is determined based at least in part on a comparison of data packet contents, wherein the data packet contents are represented by a hash function. program product.

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