Effectively fetch media content for enhancing media streaming

• US 10,440,085 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2016
• Issued: 10/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chen, Minchuan, Puntambekar, Amit, Coward, Michael Hamilton
• Primary Examiner(s): Winder, Patrice L
• Application Number:
  US15/395,811
• Publication Number:
  US 20180191799A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,012 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

An online system more efficiently streams multimedia content over the Internet for play back on client devices with varying computing power and network bandwidths by generating enhanced manifest files that more efficiently identify suitable media representations of the multimedia content. Each media representation has multiple media segments according to predefined byte ranges and a manifest file, which identifies location of the media file, bitrates, resolution, byte range, total duration, and other metadata. The online system customizes a manifest file for a user based on various factors including device capacity, network connectivity type and geolocation of the user. The online system also generates manifest fetch commands, which more efficiently fetch media segments for streaming. In response to changes of streaming server and media file (e.g., increased popularity), the online system dynamically updates corresponding manifest files.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving from a user of an online system a request for streaming media content of a media file;

encoding the media file into one or more media representations of the media content, each of the one or more media representations of the media content describing a corresponding streaming quality of the media content;

segmenting each of the one or more media representations of the media content into a plurality of media segments according to a predefined byte offset;

generating a manifest file for each of the one or more media representations of the media content, each manifest file for a media representation of the media content comprising information describing a location of the media representation of the media content, and a plurality of media segments for the media representation of the media content;

analyzing a plurality of user features describing the user and conditions associated with streaming the media content to the user, the plurality of user features including a history of streaming services received by the user, the history of streaming services identifying a quality of media representation preferred by the user;

generating one or more fetch commands for a media representation of the media content having the quality of media representation preferred by the user, each fetch command indicating a number of bytes of media content to be fetched with respect to an initial byte offset; and

providing the manifest file and the corresponding one or more fetch commands to the user of the online system for streaming the media content of the media file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the location of the media representation of the media content included in the manifest file for each of the one or more media representations of the media content includes a universal resource locator (URL) of the media content provided by a content provider.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating one or more fetch commands for the media representation of the media content having the quality of media representation preferred by the user comprises:

determining the initial byte offset associated with a first media segment within the media representation having the quality of media representation preferred by the user based on a byte range of the first media segment;

wherein the number of bytes of media content to be fetched is a sum of the initial byte offset and a number of bytes associated with a number of media segments to be fetched.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of media segments for the media representation of the media content included in the manifest file for each of the one or more media representations of the media content represents a portion of the media content, wherein a size of each of the plurality of media segments is defined by a corresponding byte range within the media representation of the media content included in the manifest file for each of the one or more media representations of the media content.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each of the plurality of media segments of the media representation of the media content has a same size measured by the corresponding byte range within the media representation of the media content included in the manifest file for each of the one or more media representations of the media content.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking a byte offset of a last media segment of the media content in a current media representation of the media content.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a request for a different media representation of the one or more media representations of the media content from a media player of the user; and

generating a fetch command in response to the received request, the generated fetch command identifying the byte offset of the last media segment of the media content in the current media representation of the media content as the initial byte offset; and

providing the generated fetch command to the media player of the user to fetch media segments comprising the different media representation of the one or more media representations of the media content subsequent to the last media segment of the media content in the current media representation.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more media representations of the media content are supported by dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) streaming protocol.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the manifest file for each of the one or more media representations of the media content further comprises:

receiving information from a media player of the user, the information including, at least, a current bit rate for streaming a current media representation of the media content by the media player of the user.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining a next media representation of the one or more media representations of the media content based on the received information;

generating a manifest file for the determined next media representation of the one or more media representations of the media content; and

generating one or more fetch commands associated with the manifest file for the determined next media representation of the one or more media representations of the media content.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps including:

receiving from a user of an online system a request for streaming media content of a media file;

encoding the media file into one or more media representations of the media content, each of the one or more media representations of the media content describing a corresponding streaming quality of the media content;

segmenting each of the one or more media representations of the media content into a plurality of media segments according to a predefined byte offset;

generating a manifest file for each of the one or more media representations of the media content, each manifest file for a media representation of the media content comprising information describing location of the media representation of the media content, and a plurality of media segments for the media representation of the media content;

analyzing a plurality of user features describing the user and conditions associated with streaming the media content to the user, the plurality of user features including a history of streaming services received by the user, the history of streaming services identifying a quality of media representation preferred by the user;

generating one or more fetch commands for a media representation of the media content having the quality of media representation preferred by the user, each fetch command indicating a number of bytes of media content to be fetched with respect to an initial byte offset; and

providing the manifest file and corresponding one or more fetch commands to the user of the online system for streaming the media content of the media file.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the location of the media representation of the media content included in the manifest file for each of the one or more media representations of the media content includes a universal resource locator (URL) of the media content provided by a content provider.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein generating one or more fetch commands for the media representation of the media content having the quality of media representation preferred by the user comprises:

determining the initial byte offset associated with a first media segment within the media representation having the quality of media representation preferred by the user based on a byte range of the first media segment;

wherein the number of bytes of media content to be fetched is a sum of the initial byte offset and a number of bytes associated with a number of media segments to be fetched.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of media segments for the media representation of the media content included in the manifest file for each of the one or more media representations of the media content represents a portion of the media content, wherein a size of each of the plurality of media segments is defined by a corresponding byte range within the media representation of the media content included in the manifest file for each of the one or more media representations of the media content.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein each of the plurality media segments of the media representation of the media content has a same size measured by the corresponding byte range within the media representation of the media content included in the manifest file for each of the one or more media representations of the media content.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps including:

tracking a byte offset of a last media segment of the media content in a current media representation of the media content.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps including:

receiving a request for a different media representation of the one or more media representations of the media content from a media player of the user; and

generating a fetch command in response to the received request, the generated fetch command identifying the byte offset of the last media segment of the media content in the current media representation of the media content as the initial byte offset; and

providing the generated fetch command to the media player of the user to fetch media segments comprising the different media representation of the one or more media representations of the media content subsequent to the last media segment of the media content in the current media representation.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the one or more media representations of the media content are supported by dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) streaming protocol.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein generating the manifest file for each of the one or more media representations of the media content further comprises:

receiving information from a media player of the user, the information including, at least, a current bit rate for streaming a current media representation of the media content by the media player of the user.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps including:

determining a next media representation of the one or more media representations of the media content based on the received information;

generating a manifest file for the determined next media representation of the one or more media representations of the media content; and

generating one or more fetch commands associated with the manifest file for the determined next media representation of the one or more media representations of the media content.