Search

US-20260128054-A1 - SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUDIO TIMING AND SYNCHRONIZATION

US20260128054A1US 20260128054 A1US20260128054 A1US 20260128054A1US-20260128054-A1

Abstract

According to disclosed embodiments, methods and systems of data transmission are provided. An aspect of the present disclosure is a method for estimating a TSF value, the method comprising requesting a timing synchronization function (TSF) value, receiving a first TSF value after a TSF read delay, and estimating a second TSF value by compensating the first TSF value using the TSF read delay.

Inventors

  • Mitchell Fantuz

Assignees

  • DATAVAULT AI INC.

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20260105

Claims (20)

  1. 1 . A method, comprising: requesting, by at least one processor, a timing synchronization function (TSF) value; receiving, by the at least one processor, a first TSF value after a TSF read delay; compensating, by the at least one processor, the first TSF value using an adaptive filter to form a compensated TSF value; mapping, by the at least one processor, a system time to the compensated TSF value by gradient descent with a step size to produce a mapping; and estimating, by the at least one processor, a TSF value at an intermediate time between consecutive TSF read times by selecting an interpolation mode based on a jitter statistic.
  2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the gradient descent employs a momentum parameter greater than zero.
  3. 3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the mapping is produced while operating outside a sample domain.
  4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the mapping is updated responsive to each TSF read and maintained unchanged between consecutive TSF read times.
  5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the gradient descent uses a constant step size within a bounded range.
  6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the jitter statistic comprises an energy of second differences computed over a sliding window of compensated TSF values.
  7. 7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising applying, by the at least one processor, the mapping to de-bias the compensated TSF value prior to both prediction and interpolation.
  8. 8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein an estimation of the TSF value at the intermediate time is performed on demand responsive to a request occurring between consecutive TSF read times.
  9. 9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the jitter statistic is computed from differences between consecutive compensated TSF values normalized by a TSF read interval.
  10. 10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the interpolation mode is selected by comparing the jitter statistic to a stability margin derived from historical jitter statistics maintained by the at least one processor.
  11. 11 . A device, comprising: at least one processor; and a memory storing computer code; wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer code that causes the at least one processor to: request a timing synchronization function (TSF) value; receive a first TSF value after a TSF read delay; compensate the first TSF value using an adaptive filter to form a compensated TSF value; map a system time to the compensated TSF value by gradient descent with a step size to produce a mapping; and estimate a TSF value at an intermediate time between consecutive TSF read times by selecting an interpolation mode based on a jitter statistic.
  12. 12 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the gradient descent employs a momentum parameter greater than zero.
  13. 13 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the mapping is produced while operating outside a sample domain.
  14. 14 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the mapping is updated responsive to each TSF read and maintained unchanged between consecutive TSF read times.
  15. 15 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the gradient descent uses a constant step size within a bounded range.
  16. 16 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the jitter statistic comprises an energy of second differences computed over a sliding window of compensated TSF values.
  17. 17 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to apply the mapping to de-bias the compensated TSF value prior to both prediction and interpolation.
  18. 18 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to perform the estimation at the intermediate time on demand responsive to a request occurring between consecutive TSF read times.
  19. 19 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the jitter statistic is computed from differences between consecutive compensated TSF values normalized by a TSF read interval.
  20. 20 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the interpolation mode is selected by comparing the jitter statistic to a stability margin derived from historical jitter statistics maintained by the at least one processor.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 19/346,545, filed on Sep. 30, 2025, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 18/196,383 filed on May 11, 2023, now U.S. Pat. No. 12,431,156, which claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/340,904, filed May 11, 2022, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The present disclosure is related generally to the wireless distribution of high-quality audio signals and, in particular to systems and methods of distributing high-bitrate, multichannel, audio wirelessly while maintaining low latency. BACKGROUND Some wireless network devices or stations include a local timing synchronization function (TSF) timer to keep all elements in a network synchronized. Individual devices or stations perform read operations on a periodic basis. However, the response time for read operation to determine the current TSF timer values varies depending on hardware and software requirements. This time variation can lead to increased latency and computational requirements. As noted, typical implementations of TSF read operations occur periodically. For example, in some implementations, a TSF read operation may occur every 48 ms, T=48 ms. In some implementations, due to hardware querying, TSF is not returned at specific time instances and instead includes some time delay. For example, a time delay at read instance n may be represented as n→t=nT+Δtn. In some implementations, Δtn may not be consistent. In some implementations, Δtn may be random. These variations in Δtn may cause the TSF data to have unwanted noise, and any other processing that uses TSF measurements will have inaccurate and noisy results. In some implementations, if the current TSF value is needed but cannot wait for the next time instance T, it is advantageous to estimate or predict a future TSF value. That is, TSF at t=(n+α)T is desired but the information may be limited to the previous TSF value at t=nT, 0<α<1. SUMMARY The present disclosure provides for novel systems and methods of audio transmission that alleviate shortcomings in the art, and provide novel mechanisms for accurate determination of TSF values. An aspect of the present disclosure is a method of audio transmission. In some embodiments, a method of audio transmission may determine a compensation value for TSF read delays using filtering. In some embodiments, methods described herein may use the time difference Δtn, X(n+Δtn) and previously read values, to filter and determine an estimate of TSF, {circumflex over (T)}(n). In some embodiments, methods described herein may predict the next value at t=(n+1)T→{circumflex over (X)}(n+1). And, in some embodiments, using this prediction, the method may interpolate between time instances nT≤t≤(n+1)T. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the following description of embodiments as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the various views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating principles of the disclosure: FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating non-limiting components of a general environment according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating components of data transmission network according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 3 illustrates a method for synchronizing clocks among devices in a network according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 4 illustrates a process for determining a TSF value according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 5 is a graph illustrating a non-limiting example embodiment of the operations described with respect to FIG. 4 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 6 illustrates a process for determining a TSF value according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; and FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example embodiment of a device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present disclosure will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way of non-limiting illustration, certain example embodiments. Subject matter may, however, be embodied in a variety of different forms and, therefore, covered or claimed subject matter is intended to be construed as not being limited to any example embodiments set forth herein; example embodiments are provided merely to be illustrative. Likewise, a reasonably broad scope for claimed or covered subject matter is intended. Among other things, for example, subject matter may be embodied as methods, devices, components, or systems. Accordingly,