Method and device for sharing segmented video content across multiple manifests

• US 10,642,917 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2017
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Triton US VP Acquisition, Co.
• Original Assignee: Triton US VP Acquisition, Co.
• Inventors: Ricker, Clint Earl, Morgan, David S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Peach, Polina G
• Application Number:
  US15/619,938
• Publication Number:
  US 20180137208A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,058 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/60 Digital content management, e.g. content distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/065 Encryption by serially and continuously modifying data stream elements, e.g. stream cipher systems, RC4, SEAL or A5/3
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0822 using key encryption key
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

Segments of media content may be shared amongst multiple requesting entities in a cDVR environment. In one illustrative example, a first request to initiate recording of media content at a first start time is received from a first requesting entity. In response, a first encrypted copy of a first plurality of content segments of the media content is cached in network memory, in a first encryption window associated with a first encryption key. A first manifest including a first set of URLs is generated and sent to the first requesting entity, where URLs of the first set reference a first identifier of the first encryption window and a respective one of the content segments. If a second request to initiate recording of the media content is received from a second requesting entity at a second start time that does not exceed an interval threshold, no additional copy needs to be made. Here, a second manifest including a second set of URLs is generated and sent to the second requesting entity, where URLs of the second set also reference the first identifier of the first encryption window and a respective one of the content segments.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, from a first requesting entity, a first request to initiate recording of media content at a first start time;

in response to receiving the first request,

causing a first encrypted copy of a first plurality of content segments of the media content that is referenced by a first set of segment Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) to be cached in network memory, wherein the first set of segment URLs references a first encryption key that is calculated as a function of a first encryption window and URLs of the first set reference a respective one of the content segments of the first plurality;

generating, and sending to the first requesting entity, a first manifest, wherein the first manifest includes first manifest URLs for recording of the media content in response to the first request and the first set of segment URLs, and the first manifest URLs reference the first encryption key;

receiving, from a second requesting entity different from the first requesting entity, a second request to initiate recording of the media content at a second start time; and

in response to receiving the second request when the second start time does not exceed an interval threshold from the first start time,

generating, and sending to the second requesting entity, a second manifest, wherein the second manifest includes second manifest URLs for recording of the media content in response to the second request and a second set of segment URLs, the second manifest URLs reference the first encryption key, and URLs of the second set reference the first encryption key and a respective one of the content segments of the first plurality.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first encrypted copy of the first plurality of content segments associated with the first encryption window comprises content segments that are shared between the first and the second requesting entities.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to receiving the second request when the second start time exceeds the interval threshold from the first start time,

causing a second encrypted copy of a second plurality of content segments of the media content to be cached in the network memory, the second encrypted copy of the second plurality of content segments being associated with a second encryption window associated with a second encryption key; and

generating, and sending to the second requesting entity, a third manifest including a third set of URLs, wherein URLs of the third set reference a second identifier of the second encryption window and a respective one of the content segments of the second plurality.

4. The method of claim 1, for use in cloud-enabled, network-based digital video recording (cDVR).

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the media content is communicated in accordance with a segmented video delivery, such as HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), HTTP Smooth Streaming (HSS), or Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein URLs of the first and second sets reference a respective one of the content segments by timestamp or sequence number.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein URLs of the first set reference a representation identifier of a representation of the content segments.

8. A device comprising

a network interface;

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory memory comprising instructions that when executed cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a first requesting entity, a first request to initiate recording of media content at a first start time;

in response to receiving the first request,

causing a first encrypted copy of a first plurality of content segments of the media content that is referenced by a first set of segment Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) to be cached in network memory, wherein the first set of segment URLs references a first encryption key that is calculated as a function of a first encryption window and URLs of the first set reference a respective one of the content segments of the first plurality;

generating, and sending to the first requesting entity, a first manifest, wherein the first manifest includes first manifest URLs for recording of the media content in response to the first request and the first set of segment URLs, and the first manifest URLs reference the first encryption key;

receiving, from a second requesting entity different from the first requesting entity, a second request to initiate recording of the media content at a second start time; and

in response to receiving the second request when the second start time does not exceed an interval threshold from the first start time,

generating, and sending to the second requesting entity, a second manifest, wherein the second manifest includes second manifest URLs for recording of the media content in response to the second request and a second set of segment URLs, the second manifest URLs reference the first encryption key, and URLs of the second set reference the first encryption key and a respective one of the content segments of the first plurality.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein the one or more processors perform operations further comprising:

in response to receiving the second request when the second start time exceeds the interval threshold from the first start time,

causing a second encrypted copy of a second plurality of content segments of the media content to be cached in the network memory, the second encrypted copy of the second plurality of content segments being provided in a second encryption window associated with a second encryption key; and

generating, and sending to the second requesting entity, a third manifest including a third set of URLs, wherein URLs of the third set reference a second identifier of the second encryption window and a respective one of the content segments of the second plurality.

10. A method comprising:

receiving a first request to initiate a first recording of media content at a first start time;

associating a first encryption window with the first start time based on the first start time and an interval change corresponding to the first encryption window in response to receiving the first request, wherein a first encryption key corresponds to the first encryption window;

generating a first manifest for the first recording based on the first encryption key, wherein the first manifest for the first recording includes first manifest Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) for the first recording and a first set of segment URLs, the first set of segment URLs references a first plurality of content segments that correspond to the first recording encrypted based on the first encryption key, the first manifest URLs reference the first encryption key, and a manifest URL of the first manifest URLs is characterized by a first reference to a base location, a second reference to the first encryption key, and a third reference to the first recording; and

providing the first manifest to a first requesting entity associated with the first request.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first manifest also includes a first plurality of other resource identifiers associated with the first plurality of content segments that correspond to the first recording, wherein each one or more other resource identifiers are characterized by the first reference to the base location, the second reference to the first encryption key, and a fourth reference to a respective content segment among the first plurality of content segments.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first resource identifier corresponds to a URL, and wherein each one or more other resource identifiers correspond to URLs.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein each one or more other resource identifiers are characterized by a reference to a playback profile.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the first requesting entity corresponds to a client device or a scheduling agent.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the base location corresponds to a content delivery network (CDN) or a particular content delivery server.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the second and third references correspond to key-value pairs.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving a second request to initiate a second recording of the media content at a second time;

associating the first encryption window with the second time in response to receiving the second request;

generating a second manifest for the second recording based on the first encryption key and a second plurality of content segments that correspond to the second recording; and

providing the second manifest to a second requesting entity associated with the second request, wherein the second manifest includes a second resource identifier associated with the second recording that is characterized by the first reference to the base location, the second reference to the first encryption key, and a fifth reference to the second recording.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the second manifest also includes a second plurality of other resource identifiers associated with the second plurality of content segments that correspond to the second recording, wherein each one or more other resource identifiers of the second plurality are characterized by the first reference to the base location, the second reference to the first encryption key, and a sixth reference to a respective content segment among the second plurality of content segments.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first plurality of content segments and the second plurality of content segments include at least one common segment.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a third request to initiate a third recording of the media content at a third time;

associating a second encryption window with the third time in response to receiving the third request, wherein a second encryption key corresponds to the second encryption window;

generating a third manifest for the third recording based on the second encryption key and a third plurality of content segments that correspond to the third recording; and

providing the third manifest to a third requesting entity associated with the third request,

wherein the third manifest includes a third resource identifier associated with the third recording that is characterized by the first reference to the base location, a seventh reference to the second encryption key, and an eighth reference to the third recording.