A network device includes a port, a transmission pipeline and a time-stamping circuit. The port is configured for connecting to a network. The transmission pipeline includes multiple pipeline stages and is configured to process packets and to send the packets to the network via the port. The time-stamping circuit is configured to temporarily suspend at least some processing of at least a given packet in the transmission pipeline, to verify whether a pipeline stage having a variable processing delay, located downstream from the time-stamping circuit, meets an emptiness condition, and, only when the pipeline stage meets the emptiness condition, to time-stamp the given packet and resume the processing of the given packet.

A system for synchronizing a local audio processing clock rate of a digital signal processor (DSP) to an audio clock rate of a network to which the DSP is connected. The system includes an adjustable clock synthesizer that is configured to establish the local audio processing clock rate of the DSP. The DSP is configured to generate events that are associated with the local audio processing clock rate of the DSP. The DSP is further configured to monitor the generated events over time and based on the monitored events cause the adjustable clock synthesizer to adjust the local audio processing clock rate of the DSP to better match the network audio clock rate.

A system and method for Time Division Multiplexing a signal for a beam hopping relay including generating the signal by interleaving first multi-variable length SuperFrames (VLSFs) with second multi-VLSFs; and transmitting the signal to the beam hopping relay. In the method, the first multi-VLSFs includes at least one first VLSF, the second multi-VLSFs includes at least one second VLSF, each of the first multi-VLSFs has a duration of a first dwell period, each of the second multi-VLSFs has a duration of a second dwell period, each of the at least one first VLSF and each of the at least one second VLSFs includes at least one SuperFrame unit (SFU). Further, the first dwell period is an integral multiple of the first duration, the second dwell period is an integral multiple of the second duration, and the first duration is different than the second duration.

A network device includes a port, a transmission pipeline and a time-stamping circuit. The port is configured for connecting to a network. The transmission pipeline includes multiple pipeline stages and is configured to process packets and to send the packets to the network via the port. The time-stamping circuit is configured to temporarily suspend at least some processing of at least a given packet in the transmission pipeline, to verify whether a pipeline stage having a variable processing delay, located downstream from the time-stamping circuit, meets an emptiness condition, and, only when the pipeline stage meets the emptiness condition, to time-stamp the given packet and resume the processing of the given packet.

A system for synchronizing a local audio processing clock rate of a digital signal processor (DSP) to an audio clock rate of a network to which the DSP is connected. The system includes an adjustable clock synthesizer that is configured to establish the local audio processing clock rate of the DSP. The DSP is configured to generate events that are associated with the local audio processing clock rate of the DSP. The DSP is further configured to monitor the generated events over time and based on the monitored events cause the adjustable clock synthesizer to adjust the local audio processing clock rate of the DSP to better match the network audio clock rate.

A multi-channel and multi-zone audio environment is provided. Various inventions are disclosed that allow playback devices on one or more networks to provide an effective multi-channel and a multi-zone audio environment using timing information. According to one example, timing information is used to coordinate playback devices connected over a low-latency network to provide audio along with a video display. In another example, timing information is used to coordinate playback devices connected over a mesh network to provide audio in one or more zones or zone groups.

A multi-channel and multi-zone audio environment is provided. Various inventions are disclosed that allow playback devices on one or more networks to provide an effective multi-channel and a multi-zone audio environment using timing information. According to one example, timing information is used to coordinate playback devices connected over a low-latency network to provide audio along with a video display. In another example, timing information is used to coordinate playback devices connected over a mesh network to provide audio in one or more zones or zone groups.

In a network having at least one slave node including a slave clock, a method of adjusting the slave clock relative to a master clock of a master node includes, at the slave node, correcting a time of day of the slave clock using (a) a slave pulse signal having a known slave pulse rate, (b) a time-of-day counter of the slave node, and (c) a master pulse signal, based on values of the slave clock at nearest corresponding edges of the slave pulse signal and the master pulse signal, and correcting a frequency of the slave clock using the slave pulse signal, a clock signal of the slave node, and the master pulse signal, based on values of the slave clock at nearest corresponding edges of the master pulse signal. No other clock signal from outside the slave node is used for the corrections.

Methods of compensating for lost data packets in hearing aid systems wherein a data streaming device streams packets of data to at least two hearing aids are disclosed.

An apparatus and method for detecting and analyzing spikes in network jitter and the estimation of a jitter buffer target size is disclosed. Detected spikes may be classified as jump spikes or slope spikes, and a clipped size of detected spikes may be used in the estimation of the jitter buffer target. Network characteristics and conditions may also be used in the estimation of the jitter buffer target size. Samples may be modified during playback adaptation to improve audio quality and maintain low delay of a receive chain.