SYSTEM AND METHOD OF PACING REAL TIME MEDIA TRANSMISSION OVER A BROADBAND CHANNEL USING MICRO BURSTING

摘要

A wireless system for steaming media files includes a microburst gateway inwhich microbursts,comprising groups of buffered packets of the streamed media, are transmittedperiodically to auser over a broadband channel over respective window periods, the bursts beingtransmitted at ahigher than an average packet rate associated with the media file. At thestart of each fairly longwindow period of 500ms, for example, one microburst is sent over the broadbandchannel,leaving the remainder of the window period available for other users. Thewindow period and anumber of packets in the burst within the window period are defined so thatthe average packetrate is substantially maintained. A corresponding microburst gateway and amethod fortransmitting the media file are also provided.