Patent 7886071 was granted and assigned to Sony on February, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A configuration is provided that performs retransmission control in accordance with a processing state in which playback of received data is performed or a processing state in which playback and recording of the received data is performed. When a communication processing apparatus receives streaming data, the communication processing apparatus is in one of the following two states: (1) a state in which “only playback” is performed, and (2) a state in which “playback and recording” are performed. The communication processing apparatus determines in which state it is and changes the way in which a retransmission request for a lost packet is sent on the basis of the determined state. According to such a configuration, when the communication processing apparatus performs only a playback process, a real-time playback can be achieved. When the communication processing apparatus performs a recording process, the integrity of recorded data can be improved.