TW201409983A - Systems and methods for supporting cooperative streaming for multimedia multicast - Google Patents

Abstract

A system and method may be described for cooperatively delivering a television (TV) broadcast. In one architecture, a broadcast and multicast - service center (BM-SC) may split a compressed video stream associated with the TV broadcast into a plurality of compressed video streams. A first data gateway may receive a first one of the compressed video streams, a second data gateway may receive a second one of the compressed video streams, and a third data gateway may receive a third one of the compressed video stream. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) may use a service descriptor to register with the data gateways and receive the first, second and third video streams. The first data gateway may be a multimedia broadcast multicast service gateway (MBMS-GW), the second data gateway may be a packet data network gateway (PDN-GW), and the third data gateway may be a wireless local area network gateway (WLAN-GW).

Description

Multimedia multimedia cooperative streaming system and method

The enjoyment of a multimedia experience on wireless devices, such as smart phones and/or consumer devices, is an increasing demand. For example, many wireless devices today can provide mobile or wireless streaming to users. To provide mobile or wireless streaming, content providers can use broadcast or multicast channels to deliver multimedia content (including services such as news, software updates, and multimedia streams of live events or scheduled materials) to such wireless devices. To deliver such multimedia content and services, codecs, protocols, and/or other service specifications can be used. For example, one or more video coding and protocol technologies (eg, layer video coding (LVC), including, for example, Internet TV broadcast protocols (eg, Octoshape, Zatto, or other peer-to-peer (P2P) live TV protocol), adjustable video, may be used. Compression (SVC), Multiple Description Coding (MDC), Broadcast via Forward Error Correction (FEC) coding, etc. and/or Streamed via Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), Evolved MBMS, etc. Content so that multimedia content can be broadcast, unicast, and the like. Unfortunately, current mobile or wireless streaming technologies, including the encoding and/or streaming protocols used thereby, can cause delays and/or changes in buffering that can prevent multimedia content from playing on the wireless device (eg, when the wireless device Moving from an area that uses an encoding or streaming protocol (such as MBMS) to an area that may not support or use that particular encoding or streaming protocol). In addition, current multimedia content providers do not develop multipath diversity that can be used for multicast and/or unicast streaming protocols to produce a more reliable mobile experience for users of wireless devices.

Systems, methods, and/or techniques for cooperative delivery television (TV) broadcasting are described. In one architecture, a Broadcast and Multicast Service Center (BM-SC) can split a compressed video stream associated with a TV broadcast into a plurality of compressed video streams. The first data gateway can receive the first video stream of the plurality of compressed video streams, the second data gateway can receive the second video stream of the compressed video stream, and the third data gateway can receive a third video stream in the compressed video stream. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) or user equipment (UE) may use a service descriptor to register with a data gateway and receive a first video stream, a second video stream, and a third video stream. The first data gateway may be a multimedia broadcast multicast service gateway (MBMS-GW), the second data gateway may be a packet data network gateway (PDN-GW), and the third data gateway may be a wireless area network. Road gateway (WLAN-GW).

The inventive content is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simple form that is further described in the detailed description below. This Summary is not intended to identify key features and essential features of the claimed subject matter, but is intended to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Further, the claimed subject matter is not limited to limitations that solve one or more disadvantages in any part of the disclosure.

A detailed description of the exemplary embodiments will now be described with reference to the drawings. While this description provides a detailed example of possible implementations, it should be noted that the details are illustrative and not intended to limit the scope of the application.

Systems, methods, and/or techniques for cooperatively communicating television (TV) broadcasts as described herein are provided. For example, in one embodiment, a Broadcast and Multicast Service Center (BM-SC) may divide a compressed video stream associated with a TV broadcast into a plurality of compressed video streams that may be provided on different paths. The first data gateway can receive the first video stream in the compressed video stream on the first path, and the second data gateway can receive the second video stream in the compressed video stream on the second path, and the third data stream The gateway can receive a third video stream in the compressed video stream on the third path. In an exemplary embodiment, the first data gateway may be a multimedia broadcast multicast service gateway (MBMS-GW), and the second data gateway may be a packet data network gateway (PDN-GW), and a third data The gateway can be a wireless area network gateway (WLAN-GW). A wireless device, such as a WTRU or UE, can then receive data streams from various gateways, such as a first gateway, a second gateway, and a third gateway. To receive such a stream, the wireless device can use the service descriptor to register with the data gateway. Thus, in an exemplary embodiment, LVC, SVC, etc. may be provided and/or used such that multimedia content (eg, multimedia content stream) may be different for each path (eg, may be a different version of the multimedia content, may have a different Quality (eg, standard resolution or high resolution of multimedia content), may have a portion of multimedia content, etc.), rather than being the same on each path.

FIG. 1A depicts a diagram of a communication system 100 in which an example of one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented. Communication system 100 may be a multiple access system for providing content such as voice, material, video, messaging, broadcast, etc. to multiple wireless users. Communication system 100 enables multiple wireless users to access such content by sharing system resources, including wireless bandwidth. For example, communication system 100 can use one or more channel access methods, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), Single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) or the like.

As shown in FIG. 1A, communication system 100 can include wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) 102a, 102b, 102c, and/or 102d (which may be collectively referred to or collectively referred to as WTRU 102) and a radio access network (RAN). 103/104/105, core network 106/107/109, public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108, internet 110, and other networks 112, but it should be understood that the disclosed embodiments contemplate any number of WTRUs. , base stations, networks, and/or network components. Each of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and/or 102d may be any type of device configured to operate and/or communicate in a wireless environment. For example, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and/or 102d may be configured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals, and may include user equipment (UE), mobile stations, fixed or mobile subscriber units, pagers, mobile phones, Personal digital assistants (PDAs), smart phones, laptops, netbooks, personal computers, wireless sensors, consumer electronics, and more.

Communication system 100 can also include a base station 114a and a base station 114b. Each of the base stations 114a, 114b can be of any type configured to have a wireless interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and/or 102d to facilitate access to, for example, the core network 106/107/109, the Internet A device of one or more communication networks, such as network 110 and/or network 112. As an example, base station 114a and/or 114b may be a base station transceiver (BTS), a Node B, an eNodeB, a home node B, a home eNodeB, a site controller, an access point (AP), a wireless router. and many more. While base stations 114a, 114b are each depicted as a single component, it is understood that base stations 114a, 114b can include any number of interconnected base stations and/or network elements.

The base station 114a may be part of the RAN 103/104/105, which may also include other base stations and/or network elements (not shown), such as a base station controller (BSC), a radio network. Road controller (RNC), relay node, etc. Base station 114a and/or base station 114b may be configured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals within a particular geographic area, which is referred to as a cell (not shown). The cell is also divided into cell sectors. For example, a cell associated with base station 114a is partitioned into three sectors. As such, in one embodiment, base station 114a includes three transceivers, i.e., one transceiver is used for each sector of the cell. In another embodiment, base station 114a may use multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology, and thus, multiple transceivers may be used for each sector of the cell.

The base stations 114a and/or 114b may communicate with one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and/or 102d via the null planes 115/116/117, which may be any suitable wireless Communication links (such as radio frequency (RF), microwave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, etc.). The null interfacing surface 115/116/117 can be established using any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

More specifically, as noted above, communication system 100 can be a multiple access system and can employ one or more channel access schemes such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and the like. For example, base station 114a and WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c in RAN 103/104/105 may implement a radio technology such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), where the radio technology may Broadband CDMA (WCDMA) is used to establish the null intermediaries 115/116/117. WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and/or Evolved HSPA (HSPA+). HSPA may include High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and/or High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA).

In another embodiment, base station 114a and WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), where the radio technology may use LTE and/or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) to establish an empty intermediate plane 115/116/117.

In other embodiments, base station 114a and WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c may implement, for example, IEEE 802.16 (ie, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1X, CDMA2000 EV-DO, Temporary Standard 2000 (IS) -2000), Temporary Standard 95 (IS-95), Provisional Standard 856 (IS-856), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced Data Rate GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN) and other radio technologies.

The base station 114b in FIG. 1A may be, for example, a wireless router, a home node B, a home eNodeB, or an access point, and may utilize any suitable RAT to facilitate local areas such as a business place, home, vehicle, campus, etc. Wireless connection. In one embodiment, base station 114b and WTRUs 102c and/or 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.11 to establish a wireless local area network (WLAN). In another embodiment, base station 114b and WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.15 to establish a wireless personal area network (WPAN). In another embodiment, base station 114b and WTRUs 102c, 102d may utilize a cellular based RAT (eg, WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE, LTE-A, etc.) to establish picocells or femtocells. As shown in FIG. 1A, the base station 114b can have a direct connection to the Internet 110. Thus, base station 114b may not need to access Internet 110 via core network 106/107/109.

The RAN 103/104/105 may be in communication with a core network 106/107/109, which may be configured to provide one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and/or 102d Any type of network for voice, data, applications, and/or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. For example, the core network 106/107/109 may provide call control, billing services, mobile location based services, prepaid calling, internet connectivity, video distribution, etc., and/or perform advanced security functions such as user authentication. Although not shown in FIG. 1A, it should be appreciated that the RAN 103/104/105 and/or the core network 106/107/109 may be associated with other RANs that employ the same RAT as the RAN 103/104/105 or a different RAT. Direct or indirect communication. For example, in addition to being connected to the RAN 103/104/105, which may utilize the E-UTRA radio technology, the core network 106/107/109 may also be in communication with another RAN (not shown) employing a GSM radio technology.

The core network 106/107/109 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and/or 102d to access the PSTN 108, the Internet 110, and/or other networks 112. The PSTN 108 may include a circuit switched telephone network that provides Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). The Internet 110 may include a global system of interconnected computer networks and devices that use public communication protocols, such as those in the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/Internet Protocol (IP) Internet Protocol suite. TCP, User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and IP. Network 112 may include a wired or wireless communication network that is owned and/or operated by other service providers. For example, network 112 may include another core network connected to one or more RANs that may employ the same RAT as the RAN 103/104/105 or a different RAT.

Some or all of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and/or 102d in the communication system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities, i.e., the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and/or 102d may include different wireless networks through different wireless links. Multiple transceivers for network communication. For example, the WTRU 102c shown in FIG. 1A can be configured to communicate with a base station 114a that can employ a cellular-based radio technology and with a base station 114b that can employ IEEE 802 radio technology.

FIG. 1B depicts a system diagram of an exemplary WTRU 102. As shown in FIG. 1B, the WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120, a transmit/receive element 122, a speaker/microphone 124, a numeric keypad 126, a display/touch pad 128, a non-removable memory 130, and a removable Memory 132, power source 134, global positioning system (GPS) chipset 136, and other peripheral devices 138. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the aforementioned elements while remaining consistent with the embodiments. Additionally, embodiments may anticipate nodes that base stations 114a and 114b, and/or base stations 114a and 114b may represent (such as, but not limited to, transceiver stations (BTS), Node Bs, site controllers, access points (APs) ), Home Node B, Evolved Home Node B (eNode B), Home Evolved Node B (HeNB), Home Evolved Node B Gateway, and Proxy Node, etc.) may include FIG. 1B and described herein. Some components and all components.

The processor 118 can be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors associated with the DSP core, a controller, a micro control , dedicated integrated circuit (ASIC), field programmable gate array (FPGA) circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), state machine, and more. Processor 118 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any other functionality that enables WTRU 102 to operate in a wireless environment. The processor 118 can be coupled to a transceiver 120 that can be coupled to the transmit/receive element 122. Although FIG. 1B depicts processor 118 and transceiver 120 as separate components, it should be recognized that processor 118 and transceiver 120 can be integrated together in an electronic package or wafer.

Transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signals to or receive signals from a base station (e.g., base station 114a) via null interfacing planes 115/116/117. For example, in one embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 can be an antenna configured to transmit and/or receive RF signals. In another embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 can be an emitter/detector configured to transmit and/or receive, for example, IR, UV, or visible light signals. In another embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 can be configured to transmit and receive both RF and optical signals. It will be appreciated that the transmit/receive element 122 can be configured to transmit and/or receive any combination of wireless signals.

Additionally, although the transmit/receive element 122 is depicted as a single element in FIG. 1B, the WTRU 102 may include any number of transmit/receive elements 122. More specifically, the WTRU 102 may employ MIMO technology. Thus, in one embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include two or more transmit/receive elements 122 (e.g., multiple antennas) for transmitting and receiving wireless signals over the null intermediaries 115/116/117.

The transceiver 120 can be configured to modulate a signal to be transmitted by the transmit/receive element 122 and demodulate a signal received by the transmit/receive element 122. As noted above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, for example, the transceiver 120 can include multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU 102 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as UTRA and IEEE 802.11.

The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to a speaker/microphone 124, a numeric keypad 126, and/or a display/touch pad 128 (eg, a liquid crystal display (LCD) display unit or an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display unit), and may User input data is received from these components. The processor 118 can also output user profiles to the speaker/amplifier 124, the numeric keypad 126, and/or the display/touchpad 128. Additionally, processor 118 may access information from any type of suitable memory (eg, non-removable memory 130 and removable memory 132) or store the data in the memory. Non-removable memory 130 may include random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), hard disk, or any other type of memory storage device. The removable memory 132 can include a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card, a memory stick, a secure digital (SD) memory card, and the like. In other embodiments, the processor 118 may access information from memory that is not physically located on the WTRU 102, such as at a server or a home computer (not shown), and store the data in the memory.

The processor 118 can receive power from the power source 134 and can be configured to allocate and/or control power to other elements in the WTRU 102. Power source 134 may be any suitable device for powering WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 may include one or more dry cells (eg, nickel cadmium (NiCd), nickel zinc ferrite (NiZn), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium ion (Li), etc.), solar cells, fuel cells and many more.

The processor 118 may also be coupled to a GPS die set 136 that may be configured to provide location information (eg, longitude and latitude) with respect to the current location of the WTRU 102. The WTRU 102 may receive location information from or to the base station (e.g., base station 114a, 114b) plus or in place of GPS chipset 136 information via null intermediaries 115/116/117 and/or based on base stations from two or more nearby The timing of the signal is received to determine its position. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may obtain location information by any suitable location determination method while remaining consistent with the implementation.

The processor 118 can also be coupled to other peripheral devices 138, which can include one or more software and/or hardware modules that provide additional features, functionality, and/or wired or wireless connections. For example, peripheral device 138 may include an accelerometer, an electronic compass, a satellite transceiver, a digital camera (for photographing or video), a universal serial bus (USB) port, a vibrating device, a television transceiver, a hands-free headset, and a Bluetooth device. R modules, FM radio units, digital music players, media players, video game console modules, Internet browsers, and more.

FIG. 1C depicts a system diagram of RAN 103 and core network 106, in accordance with one embodiment. As described above, the RAN 103 can communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c over the null plane 115 using UTRA radio technology. The RAN 103 can also communicate with the core network 106. As shown in FIG. 1C, the RAN 103 may include Node Bs 140a, 140b, and/or 140c, each of which may include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c through the null plane 115. Communicate. Each of the Node Bs 140a, 140b, and/or 140c can be associated with a particular cell (not shown) within the RAN 103. The RAN 103 may also include RNCs 142a and/or 142b. It should be understood that the RAN 103 may include any number of Node Bs and RNCs, consistent with the embodiments.

As shown in FIG. 1C, Node Bs 140a and/or 140b can communicate with RNC 142a. Additionally, Node B 140c can communicate with RNC 142b. Node Bs 140a, 140b, and/or 140c can communicate with RNCs 142a, 142b, respectively, via an Iub interface. The RNCs 142a, 142b can communicate with one another via the Iur interface. Each of the RNCs 142a, 142b can be configured to control the Node Bs 140a, 140b, and/or 140c to which they are connected, respectively. In addition, each of the RNCs 142a, 142b can be configured to perform or support other functions, such as outer loop power control, load control, admission control, packet scheduling, handover control, macro diversity, security functions, data encryption. Wait.

The core network 106 shown in FIG. 1C may include a media gateway (MGW) 144, a mobile switching center (MSC) 146, a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) 148, and/or a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) 150. While the foregoing components are represented as part of the core network 106, it should be understood that any of these components may be owned and/or operated by entities other than the core network operator.

The RNC 142a in the RAN 103 can be connected to the MSC 146 in the core network 106 via an IuCS interface. The MSC 146 can be connected to the MGW 144. MSC 146 and MGW 144 may provide WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c with access to circuit-switched networks, such as PSTN 108, to facilitate communication between WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c and conventional landline communication devices.

The RNC 142a in the RAN 103 may also be connected to the SGSN 148 in the core network 106 via an IuPS interface. The SGSN 148 can be connected to the GGSN 150. SGSN 148 and GGSN 150 may provide WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c with access to a packet switched network, such as Internet 110, to facilitate communication between WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c and IP-enabled devices. .

As noted above, core network 106 can also be coupled to network 112, which can include wired or wireless networks that are owned and/or operated by other service providers.

FIG. 1D depicts a system diagram of RAN 104 and core network 107 in accordance with another embodiment. As described above, the RAN 104 can communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c over the null plane 116 using E-UTRA radio technology. The RAN 104 can also communicate with the core network 107.

The RAN 104 may include eNodeBs 160a, 160b, and/or 160c, but it should be understood that the RAN 104 may include any number of eNodeBs while maintaining consistency with the embodiments. Each of the eNodeBs 160a, 160b, and/or 160c may include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c over the null plane 116. In one embodiment, eNodeBs 160a, 160b, and/or 160c may utilize MIMO technology. The eNodeB 160a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit and receive wireless signals to and from the WTRU 102.

Each of the eNodeBs 160a, 160b, and/or 160c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown), and may be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, and/or uplink and/or downlink User group scheduling on the link, and so on. As shown in FIG. 1D, eNodeBs 160a, 160b, and/or 160c can communicate with each other through the X2 interface.

The core network 107 shown in FIG. 1D may include a mobility management entity (MME) 162, a service gateway 164, a packet data network (PDN) gateway 166, and the like. While each of the aforementioned units is shown as part of core network 107, it should be understood that any of these units may be owned and/or operated by other entities than the core network operator.

The MME 162 may be connected to each of the eNodeBs 160a, 160b, and/or 160c of the RAN 104 via the S1 interface and function as a control node. For example, the MME 162 may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c, bearer activation/deactivation, selection of particular service gateways during initial attachment of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c, and the like. The MME 162 may also provide control plane functionality for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown) that use other radio technologies, such as GSM or WCDMA.

Service gateway 164 may be connected to each of eNodeBs 160a, 160b, and/or 160c in RAN 104 via an S1 interface. The service gateway 164 can typically route and forward user data packets to/from the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c. The service gateway 164 may also perform other functions, such as anchoring the user plane during handover between eNodeBs, triggering paging, managing and storing the WTRUs 102a, 102b when downlink information is available to the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c. , and / or the context of 102c and so on.

The service gateway 164 may also be connected to a PDN gateway 166 that may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c with access to a packet switched network (e.g., the Internet 110) to facilitate the WTRU 102a. Communication between 102b, and/or 102c and the IP-enabled device.

The core network 107 can facilitate communication with other networks. For example, core network 107 may provide WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c with access to a circuit-switched network (e.g., PSTN 108) to facilitate WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c with conventional landline communications devices. Communication between. For example, core network 107 may include or be in communication with an IP gateway (e.g., an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as an interface between core network 107 and PSTN 108. In addition, core network 107 can provide access to network 112 to WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c, which can include wired or wireless networks that are owned and/or operated by other service providers.

FIG. 1E depicts a system diagram of RAN 105 and core network 109, in accordance with one embodiment. The RAN 105 may be an Access Service Network (ASN) that employs IEEE 802.16 radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c over the null plane 117. As will be discussed further below, the communication links between the different functional entities of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c, the RAN 105, and the core network 109 may be defined as reference points.

As shown in FIG. 1E, the RAN 105 may include base stations 180a, 180b, and/or 180c and ASN gateway 182, but it should be understood that the RAN 105 may include any number of base stations while remaining consistent with the embodiments. And ASN gateway. Base stations 180a, 180b, and/or 180c may each be associated with a particular cell (not shown) in RAN 105, and may each include one or more transceivers to communicate with WTRUs 102a, 102b through null intermediaries 117, And / or 102c communicate. In one embodiment, base stations 180a, 180b, and/or 180c may implement MIMO technology. Thus, for example, base station 180a can use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to WTRU 102a and receive wireless signals from the WTRU 102a. Base stations 180a, 180b, and/or 180c may also provide mobility management functions such as handover triggering, tunnel establishment, radio resource management, traffic classification, quality of service (QoS) policy enforcement, and the like. The ASN gateway 182 can be used as a traffic aggregation point and can be responsible for paging, caching subscriber profiles, routing to the core network 109, and the like.

The null interfacing plane 117 between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c and the RAN 105 may be defined as an Rl reference point that implements the IEEE 802.16 specification. In addition, each of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c may establish a logical interface (not shown) with the core network 109. The logical interface between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c and the core network 109 can be defined as an R2 reference point that can be used for authentication, authorization, IP host configuration management, and/or mobility management.

A communication link between each of the base stations 180a, 180b, and/or 180c may be defined as an R8 reference point, which may include WTRU handover and data transfer between base stations. agreement. The communication link between base stations 180a, 180b, and/or 180c and ASN gateway 182 may be defined as an R6 reference point. The R6 reference point may include an agreement to facilitate mobility management based on mobility events associated with each of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c.

As shown in FIG. 1E, the RAN 105 can be connected to the core network 109. The communication link between the RAN 105 and the core network 109 can be defined as an R3 reference point that includes protocols for facilitating, for example, data transfer and mobility management capabilities. The core network 109 may include a Mobile IP Home Agent (MIP-HA) 184, an Authentication, Authorization, Accounting (AAA) server 186, and a gateway 188. While each of the foregoing elements is described as being part of core network 109, it is to be understood that any of these elements can be owned and/or operated by entities other than the core network operator.

The MIP-HA may be responsible for IP address management and enable the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c to roam between different ASNs and/or different core networks. The MIP-HA 184 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c with access to a packet switched network (e.g., the Internet 110) to facilitate communication between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c and the IP-enabled device. Communication. The AAA server 186 can be responsible for user authentication and support for user services. Gateway 188 can facilitate interworking with other networks. For example, gateway 188 may provide WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c with access to a circuit-switched network (e.g., PSTN 108) to facilitate communication between WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c and conventional landline communication devices. Communication. In addition, gateway 188 can provide WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c with access to network 112 (which can include other wired or wireless networks that are owned and/or operated by other service providers).

Although not shown in FIG. 1E, it should be, can, and/or will be understood that the RAN 105 can be connected to other ASNs and the core network 109 can be connected to other core networks. The communication link between the RAN 105 and other ASNs may be defined as an R4 reference point, which may include mobility for coordinating the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and/or 102c between the RAN 105 and other RANs. The communication link between core network 109 and other core networks may be defined as an R5 reference point, which may include protocols for facilitating interworking between the home core network and the visited core network.

As described herein, providing multimedia experiences such as mobile or wireless streaming on smart phones and/or consumer devices is an increasing demand, which can be a drive innovation in protocol design and enhanced video streaming architecture. To provide such a multimedia experience and/or wireless streaming, multimedia content can be delivered to several receivers using a broadcast or multicast channel. For example, to deliver a service, multimedia streams such as news, software updates (eg, via downloads), live events or scheduled materials, and/or any other multimedia content, codecs, protocols, and/or service specifications may be provided. For example, in 3GPP, Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) can be used to stream multimedia content. In addition, other video coding and protocol techniques may be provided or used for broadcast or streaming, such as by the top TV broadcasts described herein.

For example, in one embodiment, hierarchical video coding (LVC) may be used in order to provide mobile or wireless streaming or broadcast to devices such as WTRUs and/or UEs. In LVC, Internet TV broadcasts can use multiple content servers that can cooperate to provide a higher quality level of service. In particular, Octoshape (which may be used, for example, by CNN for live internet broadcast) and/or Zattoo (which may be a production live stream provider in Europe) may be an example of such an internet TV broadcast service. In an exemplary embodiment, such a service may be classified as a peer-to-peer live TV. Additionally, according to an embodiment, such services (eg, Octoshape and Zattoo) may use Reed-Solomon (RS) encoding for forward error correction (FEC). The RS coding may be a systematic coding of n packets transmitted for each segment, where k packets (eg, k<n packets) carry live stream data, and the remaining portions (eg, nk packets) may carry redundant data. . In one embodiment, once the client or device has received k packets (eg, for each segment), the client or device may reconstruct the remaining n-k packets. In addition, the original broadcast server can send video streams to several dedicated receivers (or actively provided clients/peers) that can cooperatively generate n independent channels.

In addition, Adjustable Video Coding (SVC) can be used to provide mobile or wireless streaming to devices such as WTRUs and/or UEs. The SVD can decompose the encoded video stream into multiple independent layers in the spatial domain, the time domain, and/or the quality domain. In addition, the SVC can enable encoding of a high quality video bitstream that can include one or more subset bitstreams (or, for example, encoded into layers). For example, the bit stream can be encoded into a first layer and subsequent layers. The first layer may be a base layer, which may typically have a small bit rate and may use a reliable transport protocol or more FEC encoding. The subsequent layer may be a reinforcement layer that requires an increase in the number of bit rates and a reduced level of reliability.

According to further embodiments, multiple description codes (MDCs) may be used to provide mobile or wireless streaming. An MDC can be an encoding technique that can decompose a video stream into multiple levels, such as equally important levels. For example, in MDC, 3D stereoscopic video coding can be provided by dividing the entire video frame into left and right frames. For other video applications, the video frame can be divided into odd line frames and even line frames. In such an embodiment, one or more (eg, two) separate single layer video codecs may be used with little overhead at the receiver or WTRU to reconstruct the entire video stream. The MDC stream can be used in the following situations: for example, multiple independent paths are available between the receiver and the video stream server.

As described herein, LVC (eg, using FEC encoded SVC, MDC, or TV broadcasts) can use multiple data paths between the UE and the media streaming server. In addition, existing wireless networks (such as the communication networks described in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1C to FIG. 1E) may enable a UE (eg, a WTRU that is despised in FIG. 1B) to access and use several packet data gateways. (PDN) IP network. For example, non-seamless WLAN offloading can be provided to such networks and UEs. In addition to 3GPP IP connections via 3GPP networks or other wireless networks, non-seamless WLANs can use the WLAN interface to enable direct IP connectivity with the UE. While multiple paths for receiving content are available, current multimedia service providers do not develop such multipath diversity at the UE or WTRU, and thus, the multimedia content delivered to the UE can be delayed and/or cached. Change (eg when the UE moves from one area to another area that can support different protocols, codecs, etc.).

Thus, systems and/or methods can be provided that can support and/or use such multipath diversity. For example, as described herein, multipath diversity at the UE can be used for multicast and/or unicast streaming protocols to produce a more reliable mobile or wireless streaming (eg, TV) experience for the UE.

In one embodiment, to help provide a rich multimedia experience by using the availability of multiple data gateways (GWs) at the UE (eg, MBMS-GW, Packet Data Network (PDN) GW, or WLAN-GW), Modify the existing mobile TV broadcast architecture. For example, as described herein, multimedia content (eg, original multimedia content that can be broadcast by a content provider) can be divided into multiple streams of equal or unequal importance at the broadcast center or original content server (eg, using SVC, MDC) Or FEC encoding), and this stream can be provided to the UE on different paths.

Additionally, in one embodiment, new access gateways (eg, WLAN-GW or WiMax-GW) for supporting unicast or multicast transmission techniques may be provided and/or added to existing architectures. In this embodiment, the WTRU access manager or multimedia service provider can use access gateways to enable smart offloading techniques and avoid expensive deep packet inspection techniques.

In addition, a group of WTRUs may be used for a complimentary service as described herein to facilitate variability of multimedia content and/or different agreements. For example, a WTRU may create a stream synchronization group that may cause them to synchronize with their playback experience. In addition, a group of WTRUs can be created to exchange lost or corrupted packets during a multimedia broadcast, such as a TV broadcast. For example, in the wireless domain, coordinated video streaming techniques may allow WTRU users to create special groups between them to exchange lost packets of broadcast content via a network link (eg, via a 3GPP link). Such a group can be created in one of the interfaces (e.g., WLAN interface) to offload Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) services to a third generation (3G) network. In addition, FEC may be used on MBMS that may be based on WTRU coordination (eg, WTRU's packets) instead of Raptor coding, which may achieve greater performance gain by increasing the number of WTRU cooperating devices, and/or with SVCs can provide better quality of service (QoS) (eg, measured as Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR)) compared to non-scalable streams of broadcast material on a 3G network coordinated by the packet and/or WTRU.

To support the modification of the architecture described herein (e.g., to divide multimedia content into different streams, new access gateways, bonus services via a group of WTRUs), service description extensions as described herein may be used and/or modified. For example, in one embodiment, a service description extension may be provided to enable time shifted video material to be recorded in the cloud service, another service descriptor may be provided to enable the WTRU to register to receive the stream via a different path, and the like.

FIG. 2A illustrates an exemplary embodiment of an architecture 200a for an evolved packet core (EPC) that can be used to provide broadcast (eg, network coordinated TV broadcast) to a UE or WTRU 205 (eg, a WTRU of FIG. 1B). As shown in FIG. 2A, the architecture 200a can include a Broadcast and Multicast Service Center (BM-SC) 210. According to one embodiment, BM-SC 210 may receive multimedia content (eg, an original compressed video stream (eg, which may be a single layer H.264 stream)) and may divide the content into one or more compressed streams (eg, video) Stream), for example, a first stream s1, a second stream s2 and/or a third stream s3 having equal or different importance levels. In an exemplary embodiment, BM-SC 210 may use SVC or MDC to separate multimedia content into streams of different qualities, with different portions of content, components or slices, different frequencies, different technologies, and the like. For example, in one embodiment, BM-SC 210 may use a video compression scheme (eg, SVC) to separate and/or render multimedia content into streams s1, s2, and s3, where each stream may be a different quality multimedia Content (eg stream s1 may be multimedia content of base quality or standard resolution (eg 480i), stream s2 may be enhanced quality like medium resolution (eg 720p or other between standard resolution and high resolution) A suitable resolution), and stream s3 can be high quality or high resolution multimedia content). Moreover, according to one embodiment, the multimedia content is separated such that even frames can carry left camera images (eg, the illustrated s1 stream) and odd frames can carry right camera images (eg, the illustrated s2 stream), at BM- A stereo compression may be applied at SC 210 using a video compression scheme such as MDC.

As shown, compressed streams (eg, s1, s2, and s3) may be sent to different paths and via different networks (eg, a core network and/or a WLAN network provided by a communication system (eg, communication system 100)) UE. For example, BM-SC 210 can send streams s1, s2, and s3 to different data gateways, such as MBMS gateway (MBMS-GW) 215, packet data network gateway (PDN-GW) 220, and/or wireless. Regional Network Gateway (WLAN-GW) 225. Such gateways may cover different frequency ranges and/or may use different access technologies, such as unicast or multicast transmissions.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2A, BM-SC 210 may send stream s1 to MBMS-GW 215 on a first interface (eg, SGmb and/or SGi-mb) (eg, as defined by 3GPP or another standard or protocol). . Additionally, BM-SC 210 may send stream s2 to PDN-GW 220 on a second interface (eg, which may be the same or different than the first interface, and may also be defined by 3GPP or another network standard or protocol). Thus, in an exemplary embodiment, the first interface or the second interface may be used to connect the BM-SC 210 and the PDN-GW 220 and/or the BM-SC 210 and the MBMS-GW 215 without modification. According to one embodiment, BM-SC 201 may send stream s3 to WLAN-GW 225 via a third interface. The third interface between the WLAN-GW 225 and the BM-SC 210 may include and/or use an IPsec tunneling protocol.

MBMS-GW 215, PDN-GW 220, and WLAN-GW 225 may also cooperate and communicate with UE 205 to deliver broadcasts (e.g., TV broadcasts) via an empty interfacing plane associated therewith. For example, the UE 205 can receive one or more compressed streams from the gateway based on available bandwidth and/or desired quality of experience (QoE) levels. In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2A, the UE 205 can receive the stream s1 from the MBMS-GW 215 and the stream s2 from the PDN-GW 220 (eg, via multiples on UTRAN, E-TRAN, 3GPP, etc.) Wireless broadcast). The UE 205 may also receive the stream s3 from the WLAN-GW 225 (e.g., via a radio broadcast on an access point). Thus, the UE 205 can receive streams on multiple empty intermediaries at the same time (e.g., simultaneously).

According to another exemplary embodiment, in order to receive individual streams, the WTRU 205 may cooperate by registration to receive streams from the data gateway at the same time (eg, simultaneously). For example, the WTRU 205 may register with the MBMS-GW 215, the PDN-GW 220, and the WLAN-GW 225 to receive the stream s1, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/User Profile Protocol (UDP) on the multicast (eg, IP multicast), respectively. Stream s2 on unicast and stream s3 on TCP/UDP unicast. Additionally, in one embodiment (not shown), the UE 205 may have access to three MBMS-GWs such that streams s1, s2, and s3 may pass through three different MBMS-GWs in the core network, respectively. Received.

In order to register with the gateway (eg, MBMS-GW 215, PDN-GW 220, and WLAN-GW 225), and thus receive the broadcasted multimedia content and the streams associated therewith, the UE 205 can use the service descriptor (eg, a new service description) Or a modifiable existing service descriptor) to connect and/or send signals to appropriate gateway features of the UE and/or to attach the UE to respective gateways to receive multimedia content and streams associated therewith. For example, in one embodiment, one or more existing service descriptors may be extended (eg, may include additional indicia or information, such as described below) to include sufficient information to enable the UE 205 to receive from various packet gateways ( Or streams s1, s2, and s3 of a content server, such as described below.

As described herein, architecture 200a may enable multicast and unicast transmissions to be combined for multimedia content (eg, TV broadcast streams), such as by using Automatic IP Multicast Tunneling (AMT). For example, BM-SC 210 may include an Automatic IP Multicast Tunnel (AMT) repeater 230, and/or WLAN-GW 225 may include an AMT Gateway (AMT-GW) 235. According to an exemplary embodiment, AMT repeater 230 may be used in a multicast IP network to encapsulate a multicast stream of multimedia content into a unicast stream that may be received by AMT-GW 235 within a WLAN IP network. Thus, BM-AMT repeater 230 and AMT-GW 235 can interact with each other to connect multicast and unicast transmissions. In this embodiment (e.g., as shown in FIG. 2A), the BM-SC 210 can receive multimedia content from the content provider 240 and can separate or separate it into streams s1, s2, and s3 as described herein. If the BM-SC 210 can use IP multicast to allocate the s3 stream to the WLAN IP network, the AMT relay 230 and the AMT-GW 235 can be used as a middleware so that the stream s3 can be provided or sent from the BM-SC 210 to The AMT relay 230 is provided or sent from the AMT relay 230 to the AMT GW 235, wherein the AMT relay 230 and the AMT GW 235 can interact with each other to connect the stream s3 from multicast to unicast (eg, it can Used by the WLAN access network, and the AMT GW 235 can then send the stream s3 (e.g., it can now be in unicast) to the WLAN-GW 225 and then to the UE 205 as described above. After receiving the streams (eg, s1, s2, and s3), the UE 205 can merge the streams and then present the merged streams to display or output the multimedia content on the UE 205.

Additionally, in one embodiment, an architecture such as architecture 200a shown in FIG. 2A may enable delivery of content to the UE through the WLAN access point using MBMS, such as when the UE may be streaming, such as a mobile TV service. The multimedia service is simultaneously roaming in a hotspot area such as near an airport (e.g., as shown in Figure 2B). For example, the architecture 200a shown in FIG. 2A can be modified to provide different flows of streams that can enable the MBMS to use WLAN access points in conjunction with the network elements shown in architecture 200b in FIG. 2B. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2B, the BM-SC 210 can receive the content, and can provide two streams (eg, the first stream s1 and the second stream s2) directly to the MBMS-GW 215. The BM-SC 210 and/or content provider 240 can separate the streams as described herein. The MBMS-GW 215 can then transmit or deliver one of the streams (e.g., the first stream s1) to the UE or WTRU 205 via 3GPP or other communication network. The MBMS-GW 215 may send another stream (e.g., second stream s2) to the PDN (e.g., ePDN 250) or other network element in the core network, and then the PDN or other network elements in the core network may communicate with the PDN. The WiFi access point of the communication sends a stream to the UE 205. Additionally, in this embodiment, one of the streams (eg, the first stream) may be a base layer quality having a low bit rate, for example to avoid when the second stream is an enhancement layer quality that may have a higher bit rate. Communication network links such as 3GPP links are overloaded. In addition, the communication network can cooperate with the WLAN access provider to fully deliver the multicast video service to the WLAN access point, thereby providing the UE 205 with an enhanced version of the content.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of an architecture 300 for an EPC that may be used to provide broadcast (eg, network coordinated TV broadcast) to a UE or WTRU 305 (eg, a WTRU of FIG. 1B). As shown in FIG. 3 (and similar to FIG. 2), architecture 300 can include BM-SC 310. The BM-SC 310 can receive multimedia content from the content provider 340 and can split the original compressed video stream (e.g., it can be a single layer H.264 stream) into a range of available bandwidths and desired QoS levels by the UE 305. One or more compressed video streams received, such as first stream s1, second stream s2, and third stream s3.

As shown in FIG. 3 and the description herein, the stream may be transmitted from the BM-SC 310 to different data gateways (eg, the stream s1 may be sent to the WLAN-GW 325, and the stream s2 may be sent to the MBMS-GW 315. And stream s3 may be sent to PDN-GW 320), and then the stream may be sent directly to UE 305 and/or to other gateways as shown.

In order to receive the stream, in one embodiment (e.g., in accordance with the exemplary architecture 200a of Figure 2A), the UE 305 can register and receive based on criteria such as whether the gateway is closest to the network, etc. Flow from a single gateway. For example, instead of having a connection or interface with each gateway, the UE 305 can attach to the closest gateway (eg, WLAN-GW 325) near the network to provide coordinated deployment that can be assisted by the network operator. .

As shown in FIG. 3, to receive streams s1, s2, and s3, UE 305 can register with WLAN-GW 325 and attach to WLAN-GW 325, such that UE 305 can receive streams s1, s2 from WLAN-GW 325, and Each of s3 can thus offload data traffic (eg, associated with multimedia content) to the WLAN network. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the WLAN-GW 325 can receive the stream s1 from the BM-SC 310 and the streams s2 and s3 from the MBMS-GW 315 and the PDN-GW 320, respectively, so that the WLAN-GW can There is a direct connection to the PDN-GW 320 and MBMS-GW 315 of the underlying network operator. Thus, a collaborative interface can be established between the WLAN-GW 325, the MBMS-GW 315, and the PDN-GW 320 to deliver multimedia content or streaming services with support from the wireless carrier.

In one embodiment, MBMS-GW 315 may use multicast transmissions such as IP multicast, and WLAN-GW 325 may use unicast transmission. In embodiments where the MBMS-GW 315 can use IP multicast while the WLAN network can use unicast transmission, the AMT relay 315 and the AMT GW 335 at the EPC can assist in packaging the IP multicast to as described herein. In a unicast stream in a WLAN network (for example as shown in Figure 2 above).

After receiving the streams s1, s2, and s3, the WLAN-GW 325 can assemble the stream for the UE 305 and can then transmit the assembled stream to the UE 305. To assemble the s1, s2, and s3 streams on behalf of the UE 310, the WLAN-GW 325 can provide and use a service descriptor, such as a new service descriptor or a modifiable existing service descriptor. For example, one or more existing service descriptors may be extended to enable WLAN-GW 325 to receive s1, s2, and s3 streams from a suitable packet gateway or content server and assemble the s1, s2, and s3 streams at Information within a single stream is included, which may be a suitable protocol for the UE 305 to receive multimedia content and present the multimedia content on the UE 305.

Figure 4 illustrates an embodiment of an architecture 400 for an EPC that can be used to provide broadcast (e.g., network coordinated TV broadcast) to a UE or WTRU 405 (e.g., a WTRU of Figure 1B). As shown in FIG. 4, in architecture 400, content providers, WLANs and/or core networks, and IP networks and elements that may be included in the multimedia stream (eg, BM-SC 410a, 410b, MBMS-GW) 415, PDN-GW 420, WLAN-GW 425) may cooperate to deliver enhanced streaming services. For example, content provider 440 can divide multimedia content, such as raw video streams, into one or more that can be encoded using SVC, MDC, or FEC encoding, as compared to architectures 200a-b of Figures 2 and 3, respectively. Compressed streams, such as first stream s1, second stream s2, and third stream s3. Accordingly, content provider 440 can perform at least a portion of the functionality of BM-SC 210 and/or 310. For example, content provider 440 can represent some of the intelligence that BM-SC can represent in other embodiments (eg, how to separate streams), including sending different quality specific streams to different gateways (eg, content provider 440 can The standard or lower quality is sent via streams s1 and s2 and the higher quality or high resolution is sent via stream s3).

At least some (eg, some) of these compressed streams (eg, streams s1 and s2) may be sent from content provider 440 to different BM-SCs (eg, BM-SC1 410a and BM-SC2 410b), while other streams may be For example, stream s3 is sent directly to WLAN-GW 425. Thus, content provider 440 can send a particular stream to a particular gateway or network element in the same network or in a different network.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, the BM-SC1 410a and the BM-SC2 410b can also transmit the stream s1 and the stream s2 to different data gateways. For example, BM-SC1 410a may send stream s1 received from content provider 440 to MBMS-GW 315, and BM-SC2 410b may send stream s2 from content provider 440 to PDN-GW 420.

The UE 405 can register with several data gateways and simultaneously receive video streams from the several data gateways. For example, the UE 405 can attach to the 3GPP network to receive the streams s1 and s2 from the MBMS-GW 415 and the PDN-GW 420, respectively, and attach to the WLAN network to receive the stream s3 from the WLAN-GW 425. Thus, as described herein, the WTRU 405 can register with the MBMS-GW 415, the PDN-GW 420, and the WLAN-GW 425, and attach to the MBMS-GW 415, PDN-GW 420, and WLAN-GW 425, respectively, as herein. Receive video streams s1, s2, and s3 (e.g., as described above with reference to Figure 2).

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of an example of a network coordinated peer-to-peer (P2P) broadcast and architecture 500 for EPC that may be provided to a UE or WTRU 505 (such as the WTRU of FIG. 1B). As shown in Figure 5, the actual multimedia content can be separated between various sources or similar content providers, for example to distribute P2P streams. For example, the architecture 500 can include a first content provider 540a, a second content provider 540b, and a third content provider 540c, which can separately transmit streams s1, s2, and s3 of different qualities, features, etc., respectively (eg, content offering) Vendor 540a may provide video via stream s1 of multimedia content, content provider 540b may provide audio via stream s2 of multimedia content, and content provider 540c may provide closed captioning via stream s3 of multimedia content BM-SC1 510a, BM-SC2 510b, and BM-SC3 510c. The WTRU 505 can then receive the compressed streams s1, s2, and s3 based on the available bandwidth and the desired QoE level (e.g., as described herein (e.g., as described above)). The BM-SC1 510a may transmit the stream s1 received from the first content provider 540a to the MBMS-GW 515, and the BM-SC2 510b may transmit the stream s2 received from the second content provider 540b to the PDN-GW 520, The third content provider 540c can send the stream s3 directly to the WLAN-GW 525, so that the streams s1, s2, and s3 can then be sent from the MBMS-GW 515, the PDN-GW 520, and the WLAN-GW 525 to the registrable and They can be attached to their UE 505 (such as described above with reference to Figures 2 and 4).

As described herein, a UE or WTRU (e.g., UE or WTRUs 205, 305, 405, and/or 505 may register with a network element via a service descriptor). For example, service operators typically advertise air TV broadcasts via email (for forwarding from other friends) and the like. The message of the advertisement may carry a service description or descriptor that can be embedded in the actual message or refer to a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). The service descriptor can carry or include information about video material, scheduled broadcasts, access control (eg, Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)), bandwidth requirements, transport protocols, and the like. The UE can use this material to connect and watch the desired TV broadcast. In one embodiment, a service descriptor (as defined by 3GPP or other technologies) may be defined for the MBMS application. In addition, the Internet TV broadcast can carry and/or define service descriptions or descriptors in an in-band signaling protocol using a proprietary XML scheme. According to an example embodiment, one or more service descriptors of an existing TV broadcast may also assemble an MBMS service descriptor.

As described herein, the service descriptors can be extended to provide additional information about, for example, the UE and/or other elements or devices with respect to a collaborative architecture, such as the architecture described above. For example, the service descriptor can be extended to include the full description URI of the media stream http://domain_name/wireless_id/service_name/access_gw/media_descriptor, where domain_name (domain_name) can be the qualified domain name of the service provider (eg www.videoprovider.com), and wireless_id (wireless_id) may indicate an identifier of the wireless network technology (eg, 3GPP, Broadband Forum (BBF), WiMax). In addition, service_name (service_name) may be an identifier of a type of TV broadcast (eg, MBMS, IPTV, P2PTV), and access_gw (access_gw) may be a type of access gateway (eg, MBMS-GW, WLAN-GW) , PDN-GW), media_descriptor (media descriptor) can be actual media details (such as Session Description Protocol (SDP), Clear Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming (DASH) over HTTP, Synchronous Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL)).

Service descriptors can be extended to include one or more attributes. For example, in one embodiment, the service descriptor can include attributes for signaling whether a stream can be a multicast or a unicast IP protocol. For example, IP_type (IP_type) can be used, where IP_type can be based on IP_version (IP_version, is IPv4/IPv6), unicast/multicast, or tunneled = ON/OFF (on/off). The service descriptor may also be an attribute for signaling the availability of a plurality of data paths between the source and the destination based on the cooperative broadcast being on/off and the multipath being on/off; for signaling the video codec The type of the device and the number of streams that can be used to reconstruct the TV broadcast (for example, video_codec (video_codec) can be SVC/MDC/FEC, number_stream (number_stream) can be s1, s2, and s3, and decoding_order( Decoding_sequence) may provide an order to decode substreams; an attribute for enabling creation of groups between users to exchange lost packets and sharing the same synchronized playback experience (eg, user_group_id (user_group_id) may Uniquely identifying the group, user_group_reg (user_group_reg) may provide a reference to the registration URI for the UE to create/join/leave a group, and/or user_group_gw (user_group_gw) may provide available Reference for the gateway of group communication) and so on.

Figures 6 and 7 illustrate an example Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) descriptor extension that may be used by a UE or a WTRU. As shown in FIG. 6, in one embodiment, the MBMS descriptor can be extended to provide information about multicast on the MBMS-GW and unicast on the WLAN-GW. For example, an access gateway (accessGateway) pointing to a wireless local area network (WLAN) (such as the block off code visible in Figure 6) can be provided within the access group attribute to signal Whether the MBMS-GW is available for multicast and/or whether the WLAN-GW is available for unicast.

As shown in FIG. 7, the MBMS descriptor can be extended to enable creation of a UE group on a gateway such as a WLAN-GW. For example, an associated user group (associated UserGroup) may be provided and/or used to identify a coordinated group between UEs on the WLAN-GW. According to an example embodiment, one or more UEs may create a cooperative group on the WLAN to, for example, exchange data, such as requesting the WTRU to send lost packets, QoE reports, control packets for synchronous playback of on-demand video segments, Social interaction messages or tweets, etc. Within the MBMS Service Descriptor, a new associated user group can be used to identify a co-group between WTRUs (eg, the block code visible in Figure 7).

According to one embodiment, by employing these extensions to the MBMS service description, it is also possible to include the repair service as a collaborative user-created service by pointing the repair server to the appropriate associated user group ID. Thus, repairing a stream and/or downloading a lost packet can be accomplished by using other UEs that can correctly receive the stream and/or file. In addition, the repair server can point to the peer tracker server so that repair of lost packets can be implemented by using MBMS multicast/broadcast resources and P2P flow protocols outside of the WLAN gateway.

As described herein, in one embodiment, the UE may offload reception of content (eg, TV broadcast services or other broadcasts and/or content) to the WLAN-GW. For example, when the TV broadcast service is used in conjunction, the UE can offload reception of the TV broadcast service (available in wired and wireless networks) to the WLAN gateway. This embodiment may be used when a WTRU that has accessed a TV broadcast service (e.g., TV_Coop) can receive content using unicast or multicast over a wired or wireless network.

8 and 9 respectively depict a flow diagram of a method 800 for offloading an MBMS service (eg, a 3rd Generation Partnership (3GPP) MBMS service) to a WLAN network, and may be during the method of the example Exchanged messages. In an example embodiment, the method 800 may occur or be performed when the mobility of the UE or WTRU (eg, as described herein) may be below a certain threshold (ρ), where mobility may be calculated as the UE speed. In this embodiment, the WLAN-GW can be used to access the live stream service instead of using expensive 3GPP resources to enable the service to be offloaded.

In addition, the same IP address for the UE may or may not be maintained (ie, seamless offloading may not be used here) when offloaded to the WLAN. Additionally, offloading can be performed at the UE based on the UE speed sent to the UE, the available access type, and the TV broadcast service descriptor (eg, MBMS Service Descriptor). In one embodiment, TV service extensions or descriptor extensions may be used to enable the UE to be adaptive based on the description herein.

Offloading can be implemented at the network operator side, such as BM-SC, MBMS-GW, PDN-GW, or WLAN gateway (for adaptive based networks). Collection of relevant information can be achieved by using UE subscriptions retrieved from the Home Subscriber Service (HSS). In addition, the BM-SC or MBMS-GW may estimate the WTRU's speed based on radio access layer statistics. The WLAN gateway can cache service descriptors for as many scheduled TV broadcast materials as are available to some wireless network operators based on established commercial service agreements. Additionally, in one embodiment, the network operator can push the scheduled TV broadcast material to a certain storage subsystem at the WLAN gateway in advance to prepare the UE for performing offloading from the 3GPP to the WLAN network.

As shown in Figures 8 and 9 (for example, a message flow for an example of a UE that can offload an MBMS service from 3GPP to a WLAN), the TV broadcast service starts from a wired and wireless network (e.g., at a) ). The MBMS UE may receive (e.g., at 810 and 1) the service description of the broadcast by using inbound (e.g., other dedicated MBMS bearers) or outbound means (e.g., email, SMS, archive download). In addition, the MBMS UE may register with the potential BM-SC (eg at 810 or 2), may be initiated (eg at 3), and may receive MBMS data delivery from the MBMS delivery function (eg at 815 or 4) . An event such as UE mobility reduction (e.g., at 5) may trigger a WLAN offload to a level within the hotspot area of the WLAN access gateway, such as moving within the vicinity of an airport or a large hotel. When such a triggering event occurs, the UE can use the service attribute to initiate a WLAN gateway (eg, at 6). In addition, authorization and authentication messages (e.g., at 7) can be exchanged between the WLAN gateway and the BM-SC to enable such data plane delivery. AMT repeaters and AMT gateways can be established in the data path to allow for offloading of multicast transmissions in the 3GPP network to unicast transmissions in the WLAN network. At the time of successful authorization (eg at 7), data transfer can be resumed by using a WLAN gateway (eg at 8).

Additionally, as shown in FIG. 8, it may be determined (eg, at the BM-SC) whether the UE speed is less than a threshold (eg, at 820), whether the broadcast is available for the WLAN (eg, at 825), and/or whether the WLAN is available (eg For example, at 830). If based on the decision, the UE speed is less than the threshold, the broadcast is available for WLAN, and the WLAN is available, the WLAN may perform data transfer to cause the UE to receive the broadcast on the WLAN (eg, at 835, the data transfer may be transferred from the 3GPP network resource or Uninstall to WLAN). Otherwise (eg if the speed is greater than the threshold, the WLAN is not available, and/or the content is not suitable for broadcast on the WLAN), the broadcast may be maintained on, for example, the current network (eg 3GPP) such that the UE may continue on the current network (eg 3GPP) The broadcast is received (eg at 840).

Figure 10 depicts a flow diagram of a method 1000 for offloading a 3GPP MBMS to a cloud. For example, a UE or WTRU (e.g., as described herein) may use cloud storage for time-shifted TV broadcast services. Some TV broadcast services may allow the WTRU to record live programs (eg, sports events) for viewing at a later time period. This additional feature may be referred to as time shifted TV broadcast. As shown in FIG. 10, the TV broadcast on the 3GPP MBMS can be recorded in a later consumed cloud service for the 3GPP UE, wherein using the WLAN access can be adapted to initiate and relay the MBMS broadcast to the Internet. Cloud storage. To provide such a record, the UE may register to receive the broadcast (e.g., at 1005), and then the UE may receive a service descriptor for the broadcast (e.g., at 1010). After registration, the actual content can be broadcast to the UE and thereby received (at 1015). In order to make a time shift, a decision can be made as to whether the user can pause (eg, at 1020) content via his or her UE. If the UE does not suspend content and the UE may still be active or may have recovered from the sleep state (eg, at 1025), the UE may continue to receive content via the original network (eg, 3GPP) (eg, at 1030). Additionally, if the content has been suspended (eg, at 1020), a decision can be made as to whether the cloud is available (eg, at 1035). If the cloud is unavailable and the UE may be active or restored (eg, as at 1025 as described above), the UE may continue to receive content via the original network (eg, 3GPP). However, if the content can be suspended (eg, at 1020) and can be recorded in the cloud (eg, at 1035) (ie, the cloud server is available, can have sufficient storage, etc.), the cloud entry point can join the broadcasting The content (e.g., at 1040), the cloud service can send details to the UE to receive the recorded material (e.g., at 1045), and the UE can release its attachment to the MBMS-GW (e.g., at 1050). After releasing the attachment, a decision can be made (e.g., at the UE) as to whether the WLAN is available (e.g., at 1055). If available, the UE attaches to the WLAN via the interface (e.g., at 1060) prior to registration with the cloud service (e.g., at 1065). If the WLAN is not available, the UE can register directly with the cloud service (eg, at 1065). After registration with the service, a decision can be made as to whether the UE can be recovered or still active (eg, at 1070) such that if the UE can be recovered or active, the UE can receive content from the cloud (eg, at 1075) ). Otherwise, the content can be stored in the cloud until the UE can be resumed or activated to receive the content (eg, at 1070).

Thus, in this embodiment, the UE may release the MBMS resources and attach to the WLAN-GW to initiate and relay the time-shifted material. This change in the access interface can be performed during the pause period, which can result in very limited interruptions that can be sensed at the end user. The sample message flow between the MBMS WTRU and other network entities enabling such storage can follow a sequence similar to the sequence shown in FIG.

Although the terms device, wireless device, UE or WTRU may be used herein, it is understood and understood that the use of these terms may be used interchangeably and thus may be indistingu

Although the features and elements are described above as a particular combination, those skilled in the art will appreciate that each feature or element can be used alone or in any combination with other features and elements. Moreover, the above methods can be implemented in a computer program, software, and/or firmware incorporated in a computer readable medium for execution by a computer and/or processor. Examples of computer readable media include, but are not limited to, electrical signals (transmitted over wired and/or wireless connections) and/or computer readable storage media. Examples of computer readable storage media include, but are not limited to, read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), scratchpad, high speed cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media (such as but not limited to Internal hard disk and removable magnetic disk), magneto-optical media, and/or optical media such as CD-ROM magnetic disks and/or digital multi-function magnetic disks (DVD). A processor associated with the software can be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for use in a WTRU, UE, terminal, base station, RNC, and/or any host.

100. . . Communication Systems

102. . . Wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU)

103, 104, 105. . . Radio access network (RAN)

106, 107, 109. . . Core network

108. . . Public switched telephone network (PSTN)

110. . . Internet

112. . . Other network

114, 180. . . Base station

115, 116, 117. . . Empty intermediary

118. . . processor

120. . . transceiver

122. . . Transmitting/receiving element

124. . . Speaker/microphone

126. . . Numeric keypad

128. . . Display/touchpad

130. . . Non-removable memory

132. . . Removable memory

134. . . power supply

136. . . Global Positioning System (GPS) chipset

138. . . Peripherals

140. . . Node B

142. . . Radio Network Controller (RNC)

144. . . Media Gateway (MGW)

146. . . Mobile switching center (MSC)

148. . . Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN)

150. . . Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN)

160. . . eNodeB

162. . . Mobility Management Entity (MME)

164. . . Service gateway

166, 220, 320, 420, 520. . . Packet data network gateway (PDN-GW)

182. . . Access Service Network (ASN) Gateway

184. . . Mobile IP Home Agent (MIP-HA)

186. . . Authentication, Authorization, Accounting (AAA) Server

188. . . Gateway

200, 300, 500. . . Architecture

205, 305, 405, 505. . . User equipment (UE)

210, 310, 410, 510. . . Broadcast and Multicast Service Center (BM-SC)

215, 315, 415, 515. . . Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service Gateway (MBMS-GW)

225, 325, 425, 525. . . Wireless Area Network Gateway (WLAN-GW)

230, 330. . . Automatic IP Multicast Tunnel (AMT) Repeater

235, 335. . . Automatic IP Multicast Tunnel Gateway (AMT-GW)

240, 340, 440, 540. . . Content provider

250. . . ePDN

800, 1000. . . method

3GPP. . . Third generation partner

TV. . . TV

A more detailed understanding can be obtained from the embodiments described below, which are given by way of example, in which: FIG. 1A depicts a diagram of an exemplary communication system in which the implementation can be implemented One or more embodiments disclosed; FIG. 1B depicts a system diagram of an example wireless transmit and/or receive unit (WTRU) that may be used in the communication system illustrated in FIG. 1A; FIG. 1C depicts A system diagram of an exemplary radio access network and an exemplary core network used in the communication system shown in FIG. 1A; FIG. 1D depicts another one that can be used in the communication system shown in FIG. 1A A system diagram of an exemplary radio access network and another example core network; FIG. 1E depicts another example radio access network and another example that may be used in the communication system shown in FIG. 1A System diagram of the core network; Figure 2A - Figure 2B shows the architecture of the wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) and network cooperative television (TV) broadcast for the evolved packet core (EPC); The figure shows the architecture of the network coordinated TV broadcast for EPC; Figure 4 shows the architecture of the WTRU, network and content provider cooperative TV broadcast for EPC; Figure 5 shows the EPC for EPC WTRU and network cooperative peer-to-peer (P2P) TV broadcast architecture; Figure 6 shows a sample with an access gateway (accessGateway) pointing to a wireless local area network (WLAN) within the access group attribute Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) Service Descriptor; Figure 7 shows a sample MBMS Service Descriptor with associated user groups (associated UserGroups) for identifying co-groups between WTRUs; Figure 8 is Flowchart for offloading 3rd Generation Partnership (3GPP) MBMS service to WLAN network to; Figure 9 shows a message sequence for offloading 3GPP MBMS to WLAN network; and Figure 10 depicts 3GPP MBMS Unload the flowchart to the cloud.

200a. . . Architecture

205. . . User equipment (UE)

210. . . Broadcast and Multicast Service Center (BM-SC)

215. . . Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service Gateway (MBMS-GW)

220. . . Packet Data Network Gateway (PDN-CW)

225. . . Wireless Area Network Gateway (WLAN-GW)

230. . . Automatic IP Multicast Tunnel (AMT) Repeater

235. . . Automatic IP Multicast Tunnel Gateway (AMT-GW)

240. . . Content provider

Claims (30)

A method for cooperatively delivering a broadcast, the method comprising: receiving compressed multimedia content associated with the broadcast; dividing the compressed multimedia content into a plurality of compressed streams; transmitting the plurality of streams to a plurality of networks The circuit elements are for simultaneous transmission to a wireless device, wherein at least a portion of the network elements of the network elements are associated with different networks. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of streams comprises a first stream, a second stream, and a third stream. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the first stream, the second stream, and the third stream comprises at least one of: different qualities, different multimedia content Partial, or different, transport agreements. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of network elements comprise a first gateway, a second gateway, and a third gateway, and wherein the first stream is sent to the The first gate, the second stream is sent to the second gate, and the third stream is sent to the third gate. The method of claim 4, wherein the third stream is sent to an automatic IP multicast tunnel (AMT) repeater and an AMT gateway before being sent to the third gateway. A first transmission associated with the third stream is encapsulated or converted after being split into a second transmission supported by the third gateway. The method of claim 4, wherein the first gateway comprises a multimedia broadcast multicast service gateway (MBMS-GW). The method of claim 4, wherein the second gateway comprises a packet data network gateway (PDN-GW). The method of claim 4, wherein the third gateway comprises a wireless local area network gateway (WLAN-GW). The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of network elements comprise a first broadcast and multicast-service center (BM-SC), a second BM-SC, and a gateway, and Wherein the first stream is sent to the first BM-SC, the second stream is sent to the second BM-SC, and the third stream is sent to the gateway. The method of claim 9, wherein the gateway comprises a wireless local area network gateway (WLAN-GW). The method of claim 1, wherein the different networks comprise two or more of: a third generation partnership (3GPP), a WLAN network, and an internet protocol (IP). network. A wireless transmit and receive unit (WTRU) for cooperatively transmitting a broadcast, the WTRU being configured to register with a plurality of gateways to receive a plurality of compressed streams divided by multimedia content associated with the broadcast; Each of the gateways receives a first of the plurality of compressed streams; merges the streams from each of the gateways; and presents the merged stream to play the multimedia content. The WTRU as claimed in claim 12, wherein the plurality of compressed streams comprise a first stream, a second stream, and a third stream. The WTRU of claim 13, wherein each of the first stream, the second stream, and the third stream comprises at least one of: different qualities, different multimedia content Partial, or different, transport agreements. The WTRU of claim 13, wherein the plurality of gateways comprise a first gateway, a second gateway, and a third gateway, and wherein the WTRU is configured to receive from the The first stream of the first gate, the second stream from the second gate, and the third stream from the third gate. The WTRU of claim 15 wherein the WTRU is configured to receive the first from the first, second, and third gateways by at least one of First-class: Internet Protocol (IP) multicast, or Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) / User Datagram Protocol (UDP) unicast. The WTRU as claimed in claim 15 wherein the first gateway is a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service Gateway (MBMS-GW). The WTRU as claimed in claim 15 wherein the second gateway is a packet data network gateway (PDN-GW). The WTRU as claimed in claim 15 wherein the third gateway is a wireless local area network gateway (WLAN-GW). The WTRU of claim 12, wherein the WTRU is configured to register with a plurality of gateways using a service descriptor. The WTRU as claimed in claim 20, wherein the service descriptor includes an access gateway descriptor, and wherein the access gateway descriptor points to one of the at least one of the gateways Access a network within a group attribute. The WTRU of claim 20, wherein the service descriptor is further configured to identify a group of WTRUs, the WTRU may communicate with the group of WTRUs to receive additional packets or associated with the multimedia content flow. The WTRU of claim 22, wherein the service descriptor comprises an associated user group descriptor identifying the set of WTRUs. A method for cooperatively delivering a broadcast, the method comprising: receiving, at a first gateway, a first from a broadcast and multicast service center (BM-SC) divided by multimedia content associated with the broadcast a compressed stream; receiving, at the first gateway, a second compressed stream from a second gateway divided by the multimedia content associated with the broadcast; receiving at the first gateway Broadcasting the associated multimedia content into a third compressed stream from a third gateway; assembling the first compressed stream, the second compressed stream, and the third compressed stream at the first gateway And transmitting the assembled stream to a wireless device to output the multimedia content on the wireless device. The method of claim 24, wherein the first gateway is configured to assemble the first compressed stream, the second compressed stream, and the third compressed stream based on a service descriptor . The method of claim 24, wherein each of the first compressed stream, the second compressed stream, and the third compressed stream comprises at least one of: different qualities, the Different parts of multimedia content, or different transmission agreements. The method of claim 24, wherein the first gateway is a wireless local area network gateway (WLAN-GW). The method of claim 24, wherein the second gateway is an automatic IP multicast tunnel gateway (AMT-GW), the AMT-GW being configured to communicate with a packet data network gateway An AMT repeater of the (PDN-GW) communication receives the second compressed stream. The method of claim 28, wherein the AMT-GW and the AMT repeater are configured to associate a first one with the third compressed stream received from the PDN-GW The transmission is packaged or converted into a second transmission supported by the first gateway. The method of claim 24, wherein the third gateway is a multimedia broadcast multicast service gateway (MBMS-GW).