Abstract: An improved information transmission method is provided for use in a communication network. The information transmission method combines a bandwidth control technique with a caching technique, thereby making it possible to use allocated bandwidth in an efficient manner.

Abstract: In the present invention, a program is provided with a dummy module into which a watermark can be inserted without any effect on the operation of the program, and an digital signature. It is thereby possible for a distributor to insert a watermark for specifying a user to the dummy module, and to prevent unauthorized leakage of the program by the distributor. Further, by providing the program body with an digital signature, it is possible to prevent tampering of the program by the distributor.

Abstract: Provided is a content classifying section 203 for classifying and bundling to-be-transmitted contents on the basis of any piece of information of media kind, IP address, port number and session identifier. A packet header compressing section 204 carries out header compression on the transmission packet. Due to this, because contents can be packet-transferred with efficiency and excellent error resistance by the use of a communication and broadcast network, it is possible to realize, even on the Internet for broadcast in a broadcast form, a quality broadcast free of image or sound discontinuity as the terrestrial-wave TV broadcast.

Abstract: There is provided a transmitting section for receiving program information representative of an outline and receiving condition of a receivable program and further receiving a program on the basis of the program information, and a zone-change determining section for detecting a change of the program information. The program selecting section causes the transmitting section to suspend program reception and to switch a communication port, on the basis of a determination of a change of program distribution area by the zone-change determining section. Due to this, the transmitting section is allowed to continuously receive the program so far received. This, in the case a program is provided at a communication port different based on each region, makes it possible to correctly receive a program even if moving traversing a region.

Abstract: A terminal apparatus is provided with a content list storage section that stores a content list storing at least one pair of an address of content related to a position and the position. A position detecting section detects a position, a specifying section which defines a region including an area forward in the traveling direction based on the detected position, and specifies a position in the defined region among positions stored in the content list. A content acquiring section that acquires content corresponding to an address associated with the specified position.

Abstract: The present invention is to store a content list that stores at least one pair of content related to a position and the position in relation to the content, determine a content acquisition region to acquire the content based on a current position, select content in relation to a position associated with the determined content acquisition region from the content list, acquire part of the selected content in advance, determine whether remaining part of the selected content will be referred to based on a position subsequent to the part of the selected content being acquired, thereby determining whether or not to acquire the remaining part of the selected content, and when determining to acquire the remaining part of the selected content, acquire the remaining part of the selected content.

Abstract: In a broadcast using packet transmission, zapping-data and program data are packet-transmitted from a transmitting apparatus. A receiving apparatus receives and stores the data and zapping-data. Until the program data selected upon program reproduction becomes reproducible, zapping-data is reproduced, whereby the viewer can know the information about a program without waiting for a lapse of reproduction wait time after switching a program channel.

Abstract: In the present invention, a software watermarking is input to add to an updated program, while a differential program is input to update an original program, the original program is updated using the input differential program, and the input software watermarking is inserted into the updated program, whereby it is possible to prevent the software watermarking from being deleted even when the program is updated.

Abstract: In the present invention, a cable network upstream from base stations is constructed in MPLS, and when a radio communication terminal moves from an area of a base station currently communicating with the terminal to an adjacent area of another base station and enters a diversity areas of the two base stations, a communication network control apparatus provides paths of MPLS to the two base stations, and copies a packet to the radio communication terminal to forward to the two base stations. Then, when the radio communication terminal moves out of the diversity area and enters an area of either of the base stations, the apparatus disconnects the path (LSP) to the base station whose area the terminal moves out of. It is thereby possible to assure QoS to the radio communication terminal, while eliminating the packet loss due to handover.

Abstract: On the basis of a state of data transmission and/or data reception in all of or one of intermediate nodes (102, 103) provided on a transport path between a transmission terminal (101) and a reception terminal (104), data to be received by the reception terminal (104) is determined. It is therefore possible to realize audio transport without disconnection and video transport without distortion even under an environment in which a wire section and a wireless section are integrally present.

Abstract: A data reception part 101 for receiving data, a data transmission determination part 102 for determining where the data should be transmitted according to, at least, the address written in the data, a data transmission part 103 for transmitting data, a transmission band management part 104 for managing information on a transmission band having been assigned in the past, a transmission band reservation management part 105 for managing reservation of transmission bands according to the conditions of the assigns or for determining communication price and a relay control part 106 for controlling and managing each of those means are provided.

Abstract: When a transport rate Rs is updated, in the case where the updated transport rate Rs is within a variable range (Rc<Rs<U×Rc, and U>1) defined by a current encoding rate Rc, FEC (Forward Error Correction) data sending rate Rf is updated (Rf=Rs−Rc) without updating the current encoding rate Rc. On the other hand, in the case where an Rc update timer set to three seconds, for example, is timed out, the encoding rate Rc is updated using a minimum value Rs_min of the transport rate up to that time (Rc=V×Rs_min, and 0<V<1). Even when the transport rate Rs greatly varies to be out of the variable range, the encoding rate Rc is updated in the same manner.

Abstract: A data reception part 101 for receiving data, a data transmission determination part 102 for determining where the data should be transmitted according to, at least, the address written in the data, a data transmission part 103 for transmitting data, and a transmission band management part 104 for managing information on a transmission band. And an information drop method is characterized by having, as an input, contents to which the priority of the contents is added and processing where the contents are divided into packets of the Internet protocol and the priority of the contents is made to correspond to a priority field of packets of the Internet protocol, and said packets to which the priority is added are classified into drop classes having at least two or more different drop probabilities and said packets are dropped in accordance with the network load.

Abstract: In delivery of data from a sender terminal to a plurality of receiver terminals via a network, a data packet a certain receiver terminal has lost is recovered by retransmission from a neighboring receiver terminal. Each receiver terminal has a negative acknowledgement (NACK) timer and a retransmit packet timer. A retransmission control section determines a set value for these timers according to the number of times of retransmission, the network propagation delay time, the number of receiver terminals and the permissible delay time so that the delay time from detection of loss of a data packet until arrival of a retransmit packet falls within the permissible delay time that was determined with the capacity of a receiver buffer.

Abstract: A process, for providing a content distribution service using a terminal device including an acquisition section for acquiring a state of the terminal device and a processing device for transmitting data to the terminal device, includes the steps of the processing device acquiring content data representing a prescribed content; the processing device acquiring attribute data which specifies a condition regarding the state of the terminal device and a presentation form of the content corresponding to the condition; and the processing device transmitting the content data and the attribute data to the terminal device.

Abstract: In a sending terminal (10), a propagation delay measurement portion (102) uses propagation delay time measurement packets to measure the round trip time to/from an intermediate node of intermediate nodes (12, 13, 14) with the potential of becoming a bottleneck. Based on the results of this measurement, a transmission rate determining portion (104) determines the transmission rate of the data, and a data sending portion (100) sends the data at the determined transmission rate.

Abstract: The packet loss in a wired section is reported to a receiving terminal (61) using a loss notification packet from a gateway (62) located at the boundary between a wired section and a wireless section, and thus the causes for packet loss are separated. Also, using this loss notification packet, the packet loss rate in the wired section and the wireless section are separately calculated and the transmission rate and robustness of the data packets are determined with a sending terminal (60) in accordance with the respective loss rate of the sections.

Abstract: Cameras respectively installed at a plurality of homes and a monitoring center of a security service provider for centralized monitoring are connected together via a network. Each camera, which has a programmable internal module configuration, acquires from a module control center a program module for executing, based on video data about a target for monitoring, a recognition process for detection of the occurrence of abnormal events to the monitored target, and link information about the program module, as required.

Abstract: In a sending device (100), a fragmenting portion (101) fragments a bit stream according to the predicted relationship of the frames, and the output of the fragmenting portion (101) is allocated to either a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) or a UDP (User Datagram Protocol) port. In an IP (Internet Protocol) layer, an encrypting portion (102) executes an encryption process only on the port to which bit stream corresponding to the I (Intra) frames is transmitted. In a receiving device (110), a decrypting portion (112) decrypts data on the port to which the bit stream corresponding to the I frames is transmitted, and a reassembling portion (111) restores the data to the original bit stream. This restoration is carried out by lining up the packets in increasing order of TR (Temporal Reference) value. Thus, the amount of time required for encryption and decryption is reduced compared to a case in which encryption is performed on all frames.

Abstract: In order to implement failure-proof media transmission with TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), the following elements are added to a TCP control section, that is, a known transmission processing system: a band estimation section for estimating an available transmission band in a communication path between a transmitting terminal and a receiving terminal, a band management section for setting an upper limit of a band to be used by each TCP session by allocating the available transmission band to each of TCP sessions between the transmitting terminal and the receiving terminal, and a transmission rate management section for limiting a data transmission rate associated with each TCP session according to the preset upper limit of the band to be used.