Method and apparatus of sending encoded multimedia digital data taking into account sending deadlines

摘要

The invention relates to a method of sending encoded multimedia digital data from a first apparatus (101) to a second apparatus (102) over a communication network (100), the multimedia digital data being encoded and formed of encoding units which are distributed into packets of data before being sent, the second apparatus including a decoder (450) that is activated for decoding a plurality of encoding units according to a decoding rate, the method including the steps of:- estimating future possible variations in the decoding rate of the decoder when decoding a plurality of encoding units;- estimating the time of transmission of packets of data over the network;- determining sending deadlines for sending packets of data on the basis of said estimated possible decoding rate variations and said estimated transmission time;- sending packets of data over the network taking into account the determined sending deadlines.