Digital Fountain, Inc. Patent applications |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20130067295 | FILE DOWNLOAD AND STREAMING SYSTEM - A method of encoding data operates on an ordered set of input symbols and includes generating redundant symbols from the input symbols, and includes generating output symbols from a combined set of symbols including the input symbols and the redundant symbols, wherein the number of possible output symbols is much larger than the number of the combined set of symbols, wherein at least one output symbol is generated from more than one symbol in the combined set of symbols and from less than all of the symbols in the combined set of symbols. The redundant symbols are generated from an ordered set of input symbols in a deterministic process such that a first set of static symbols calculated using a first input symbol has a low common membership with a second set of static symbols calculated using a second input symbol distinct from the first input symbol. | 03-14-2013 |
20120203872 | MULTI-OUTPUT PACKET SERVER WITH INDEPENDENT STREAMS - A method of serving content to multiple clients via a network is provided. Independent sessions with each of a plurality of clients are maintained, wherein the number of clients in the plurality of clients can vary over time, and wherein the start of each session and the end of each session can be independent of the start and end of other sessions. A stream of packet payloads is received, each packet payload of the stream of packet payloads including data generated from the content, wherein each packet payload in at least a subset of the stream of packet payloads includes a different set of data. Each packet payload in the stream of packet payloads is transmitted to each client of the plurality of clients in corresponding packets, wherein the packet payload transmitted to a client at any particular time is independent of the state of the corresponding session. | 08-09-2012 |
20120136973 | SCHEDULING OF MULTIPLE FILES FOR SERVING ON A SERVER - Multiple files a served using a server coupled to a data network. A plurality of files is determined, wherein a file includes an integer number of blocks, and wherein each block includes at least one input symbol. For each file, an indication of at least one channel on which to serve the file is determined, and, for each file, a rate at which to serve the file is determined. Also, a schedule for processing the blocks is determined, and output symbols for the blocks are generated according to the schedule. The output symbols are transmitted on the corresponding at least one channel, wherein the files are concurrently served at their corresponding rates. | 05-31-2012 |
20120042227 | FEC STREAMING WITH AGGREGATION OF CONCURRENT STREAMS FOR FEC COMPUTATION - Transmitters and receivers deal with streams of data, wherein the receiver is expected to begin using received data before receiving all of the data. Concurrent streams are sent and FEC coding is used with the streams and done as an aggregate. The transmitter performs FEC operations over the plurality of streams, wherein source blocks from at least two streams logically associated into a jumbo source block and FEC processing is performed to generate one or more jumbo repair block from the jumbo source block. Each of the source blocks comprises one or more source symbols from their respective stream. The jumbo source symbols can be of constant size and are suitably aligned along size boundaries that make processing efficient. Each source symbol need not be the same size, and the number of source symbols from each stream in a jumbo source block need not be the same value across streams. | 02-16-2012 |
20120036409 | EFFICIENT ENCODING AND DECODING METHODS FOR REPRESENTING SCHEDULES AND PROCESSING FORWARD ERROR CORRECTION CODES - A sequence of symbol operations (a “schedule representation”) within a data storage device, wherein the operations are those used to process encoding or decoding operations of a forward error correction code (an “FEC code”) upon an arbitrary block of data of a given size (where size can be measured in numbers of symbols). The method is such that the schedule representation can be used to direct the processing of these operations upon a block of data in a way that is computationally efficient. Preferably, the same method can be applied to represent schedules derived from multiple different algorithms for the encoding or decoding of a code or for multiple different codes. | 02-09-2012 |
20110258510 | CODE GENERATOR AND DECODER FOR COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS OPERATING USING HYBRID CODES TO ALLOW FOR MULTIPLE EFFICIENT USES OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS - A method of encoding data for transmissions from a source to a destination over a communications channel is provided. The method operates on an ordered set of source symbols and may generate zero or more redundant symbols from the source symbols, wherein data is encoded in a first step according to a simple FEC code and in a second step, data is encoded according to a second FEC code, more complex than the first FEC code. The first FEC code and/or the second FEC code might comprise coding known in the art. These steps result in two groups of encoded data in such a way that a low-complexity receiver may make use of one of the groups of encoded data while higher complexity receivers may make use of both groups of encoded data. | 10-20-2011 |
20100211690 | BLOCK PARTITIONING FOR A DATA STREAM - A method for serving a data stream from a transmitter to a receiver includes: determining an underlying structure of the data stream; determining at least one objective, selected from a group of (1) reducing a start-up delay between when the receiver first starts receiving the data stream from the transmitter and when the receiver can start consumption of blocks of the data stream without interruption, according to the underlying structure, (2) reducing a transmission bandwidth needed to send the data stream, and (3) ensuring that the blocks of the data stream satisfy predetermined block constraints; and transmitting the blocks of the data stream consistent with the at least one objective and the underlying structure. | 08-19-2010 |
20090307565 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FAST ENCODING OF DATA SYMBOLS ACCORDING TO HALF-WEIGHT CODES - Efficient methods for encoding and decoding Half-Weight codes are disclosed and similar high density codes are disclosed. The efficient methods require at most 3·(k−1)+h/2+1 XORs of symbols to calculate h Half-Weight symbols from k source symbols, where h is of the order of log(k). | 12-10-2009 |
20090210547 | SCHEDULING OF MULTIPLE FILES FOR SERVING ON A SERVER - Multiple files a served using a server coupled to a data network. A plurality of files is determined, wherein a file includes an integer number of blocks, and wherein each block includes at least one input symbol. For each file, an indication of at least one channel on which to serve the file is determined, and, for each file, a rate at which to serve the file is determined. Also, a schedule for processing the blocks is determined, and output symbols for the blocks are generated according to the schedule. The output symbols are transmitted on the corresponding at least one channel, wherein the files are concurrently served at their corresponding rates. | 08-20-2009 |
20090158114 | ERROR-CORRECTING MULTI-STAGE CODE GENERATOR AND DECODER FOR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS HAVING SINGLE TRANSMITTERS OR MULTIPLE TRANSMITTERS - A communications system includes an encoder that produces a plurality of redundant symbols. For a given key, an output symbol is generated from a combined set of symbols including the input symbols and the redundant symbols. The output symbols are generally independent of each other, and an effectively unbounded number of output symbols (subject to the resolution of the key used) can be generated, if needed. The output symbols are information additive such that a received output symbol is likely to provide additional information for decoding even when many symbols are already received. The output symbols are such that a collection of received output symbols can provide probabilistic information to support error correction. A decoder calculates check symbols from the output symbols received, wherein each check symbol is associated with one or more input symbols and redundant symbols For each received output symbol, the decoder updates a running total of estimated information content and, in one or more rounds, generates a probability distribution for each input symbol over all or some of the possible values of input symbols. This process may be repeated until, for all of the input symbols, one of the many possible values is much more probable than others, or the process may be repeated a predetermined number of rounds, or other criteria is met. The updating can take into account already decoded symbols, additional output symbols and the check symbols. | 06-18-2009 |
20090144601 | FEC-BASED RELIABILITY CONTROL PROTOCOLS - In a transport system, data is reliably transported from a sender to a receiver by organizing the data to be transported into data blocks, wherein each data block comprises a plurality of encoding units, transmitting encoding units of a first data block from the sender to the receiver, and detecting, at the sender, acknowledgments of receipt of encoding units by the receiver. At the sender, a probability that the receiver received sufficient encoding units of the first data block to recover the first data block at the receiver is detected and the probability is tested against a threshold probability to determine whether a predetermined test is met. Following the step of testing and prior to the sender receiving confirmation of recovery of the first data block at the receiver, when the predetermined test is met, transmitting encoding units of a second data block from the sender. If an indication of failure to recover the first data block is received at the sender, sending further encoding units for the first data block from the sender to the receiver. In some embodiments, the predetermined test is a comparison of the probability against the threshold probability and the predetermined test is met when the probability is greater than the threshold probability. | 06-04-2009 |
20090067551 | GENERATING AND COMMUNICATING SOURCE IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION TO ENABLE RELIABLE COMMUNICATIONS - A method of generating Source Identification information from a source packet stream and reliably transmitting the Source Identification information from a source to a destination over a communications channel is provided. The method operates on a set of source packets, wherein Source Identification information for each source packet to be transmitted is derived and delivered with the Source Identification information of all or most other source packets of an associated source block. The method includes techniques to minimize the network bandwidth required to deliver Source Identification information and techniques to overcome network impairments. When combined with FEC techniques, retransmission techniques, or combinations of FEC techniques and retransmission techniques, the methods described herein allow receivers to recover lost source packets, while simultaneously ensuring that the original source packets are not modified and thereby ensuring backwards compatibility for legacy receivers. | 03-12-2009 |
20090031199 | FILE DOWNLOAD AND STREAMING SYSTEM - A method of encoding data operates on an ordered set of input symbols and includes generating redundant symbols from the input symbols, and includes generating output symbols from a combined set of symbols including the input symbols and the redundant symbols, wherein the number of possible output symbols is much larger than the number of the combined set of symbols, wherein at least one output symbol is generated from more than one symbol in the combined set of symbols and from less than all of the symbols in the combined set of symbols. The redundant symbols are generated from an ordered set of input symbols in a deterministic process such that a first set of static symbols calculated using a first input symbol has a low common membership with a second set of static symbols calculated using a second input symbol distinct from the first input symbol. | 01-29-2009 |
20080309525 | MULTI-STAGE CODE GENERATOR AND DECODER FOR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS - A method of encoding data for transmission from a source to a destination over a communications channel is provided. A plurality of redundant symbols are generated from an ordered set of input symbols to be transmitted. A plurality of output symbols are generated from a combined set of symbols including the input symbols and the redundant symbols, wherein the number of possible output symbols is much larger than the number of symbols in the combined set of symbols, wherein at least one output symbol is generated from more than one symbol in the combined set of symbols and from less than all of the symbols in the combined set of symbols, and such that the ordered set of input symbols can be regenerated to a desired degree of accuracy from any predetermined number, N, of the output symbols. | 12-18-2008 |
20080263448 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR LOW BANDWIDTH PLAY POSITION PREVIEWING OF VIDEO CONTENT - A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to display video content. A cursor associated with the relative position of the video content is provided. A new cursor position associated with a request for a new relative position of the video content is received. A thumbnail image of the video content corresponding to the new relative position is displayed. The thumbnail image is then transitioned to a full display image. | 10-23-2008 |
20080256418 | DYNAMIC STREAM INTERLEAVING AND SUB-STREAM BASED DELIVERY - A communications system can provide methods of dynamically interleaving streams, including methods for dynamically introducing greater amounts of interleaving as a stream is transmitted independently of any source block structure to spread out losses or errors in the channel over a much larger period of time within the original stream than if interleaving were not introduced, provide superior protection against packet loss or packet corruption when used with FEC coding, provide superior protection against network jitter, and allow content zapping time and the content transition time to be reduced to a minimum and minimal content transition times. Streams may be partitioned into sub-streams, delivering the sub-streams to receivers along different paths through a network and receiving concurrently different sub-streams at a receiver sent from potentially different servers. When used in conjunction with FEC encoding, the methods include delivering portions of an encoding of each source block from potentially different servers. | 10-16-2008 |
20080250298 | PROTOCOL EXTENSIONS TO SUPPORT VARYING FEC TYPES - There have been proposals to extend the MPE protocol to support different FEC schemes on the MPE layer. Examples of these proposals include: TM-SSP0178 describing a multiburst sliding encoding scheme based on Reed-Solomon (RS) codes, TM-SSP0199r1 describing a block-based encoding scheme based on multi-stage chain reaction (MSCR) codes, and TM-SSP0222 describing a multiburst sliding encoding scheme based on MSCR codes. A framework for harmonizing and integrating those techniques is described herein. | 10-09-2008 |