USE OF SEQUENCING INFORMATION IN A LOCAL HEADER THAT ALLOWS PROPER SYNCHRONIZATION OF PACKETS TO SUBSIDIARY INTERFACES WITHIN THE POST-PROCESSING ENVIRONMENT OF AN MPEG-2 PACKET DEMULTIPLEXING ARCHITECTURE

摘要

A system and method for demultiplexing and distributing transport packets, such as MPEG-2 transport packets, by generating and associating a locally-generated header with each of the transport packets to create a self-contained modified packet which incorporates essential distribution information therein. The method for enhancing transport packet demultiplexing and distribution in a digital transport demultiplexing system that inputs a stream of digital multimedia transport packets is provided. Each of the transport packets includes a packet identifier (PID) to identify the digital program or elementary stream to which it corresponds. Local packet information is generated for each of the transport packets, which is used in identifying and distributing the transport packets. A local header is created that includes the generated local packet information, and the local header is linked to its corresponding transport packet to create a modified transport packet. In this manner, each of the modified transport packets represents a self-contained digital transport packet having local distribution information contained therein. Each of the digital transport packets also include a serial isochronous interface field and a transport sequence field. The serial isochronous interface field is used by the system to determine if the individual data packet is to be transmitted onto an output link having an isochronous data stream. The transport sequence field contains information necessary to output the data packet into the isochronous data stream with a delay necessary to maintain the data packets synchronization with the other data packets within the isochronous data stream.