Method and apparatus for improving media service over multimedia network

• US 20020116251A1
• Filed: 06/06/2001
• Published: 08/22/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Chen, Yen-Kuang, Yeung, Minerva M., Lienhart, Rainer W., Holliman, Matthew J.
• Application Number:
  US09/876,769
• Publication Number:
  US 20020116251A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method to obtain a resource among nodes. In one embodiment, a first node receives an inquiry for a resource from a second node. The first node generates a cost evaluation of obtaining the resource and the first node transmits the cost evaluation to the second node for use in selecting where to obtain the resource.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

A first node generating a cost evaluation of obtaining a resource;

The first node using the cost evaluation in selecting where to obtain the resource; and

The first node transmitting an inquiry for the resource to the chosen node.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

The first node receiving an inquiry for the resource from a second node;

and

The first node transmitting the cost evaluation to the second node for use in selecting where to obtain the resource.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the inquiry for the resource includes parameter constraints.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the inquiry for the resource includes transport protocol.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the cost evaluation includes generating a cost of transcoding the resource from a first parameter constraint to a second parameter constraint.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the cost evaluation includes generating a cost of transmitting the resource.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the cost evaluation is done by computing a single-path shortest path of a graph representing operation sequences and costs.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the cost evaluation transmitted to the second node includes a cost of the first node obtaining the resource from a third node.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein generating the cost evaluation includes recursively generating a cost of obtaining the requested resource from separate nodes.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein generating the cost evaluation includes recursively generating a cost of obtaining the requested resource from separate nodes via dynamic programming.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the cost evaluation includes a cost of obtaining the resource from the first node.

12. The method of claim 3, wherein the cost evaluation generated by the first node comprises:

c(N_L,R,P_i)=min min{c(N_n,R,P_i)+c_l(N_L,N_n,R,P_j)+c_x(R,P_i,P_j)}, wherein c(N_n, R, P_j) is a cost of the first node obtaining the requested resource of an initial parameter constraint P_j, c_t(N_L, N_n, R, P_j) is a cost of transmitting the resource from a separate node, and c_x(R, P_i, P_j) is a cost of the second node converting the requested resource from an initial parameter constraint P_j to a target parameter constraint P_i.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein a daemon at the first node includes an application interface module, a media transcoding module, a cost evaluation module, and a daemon to daemon communication module.

14. The method of claim 1, further including the first node determining a path to obtain the requested resource from a third node.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the cost evaluation transmitted to the second node is a cached result stored by the first node from a previous inquiry for the resource.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the cost evaluation includes determining if the requested resource is present in a network, without considering a cost of transcoding the resource and a cost of transmitting the resource.

18. The machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the inquiry for the resource includes parameter constraints.

19. The machine readable medium of claim 18, wherein the inquiry for the resource includes transport protocol.

20. The machine readable medium of claim 18, wherein generating the cost evaluation includes generating a cost of transcoding the resource from a first parameter constraint to a second parameter constraint.

21. The machine readable medium of claim 20, wherein generating the cost evaluation includes generating a cost of transmitting the resource.

22. The machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the cost evaluation transmitted to the second node includes a cost of the first node obtaining the resource from a third node.

23. The machine readable medium of claim 22, wherein generating the cost evaluation includes recursively generating a cost of obtaining the requested resource from separate nodes.

24. The machine readable medium of claim 22, wherein generating the cost evaluation includes recursively generating a cost of obtaining the requested resource from separate nodes via dynamic programming.

25. The machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein generating the cost evaluation includes a cost of obtaining the resource from the first node.

26. The machine readable medium of claim 18, wherein the cost evaluation generated by the first node comprises:

c(N_L,R,P_j)=min min {c(N_n, R,P_j)+c_i(N_L,N_n,R,P_j)+c_j(R,P_i,P_j)}, wherein c(N_n, R, P_J) is a cost of the first node obtaining the requested resource of an initial parameter constraint P_j, c_t(N_L, N_n, R, P_j) is a cost of transmitting the resource from a separate node, and c_x(R, P_i, P_j) is a cost of the second node converting the requested resource from an initial parameter constraint P_j to a target parameter constraint P_i.

27. The machine readable medium of claim 26, wherein a daemon at the first node includes an application interface module, a media transcoding module, a cost evaluation module, and a daemon to daemon communication module.

28. The machine readable medium of claim 17, further including the first node determining a path to obtain the requested resource from a third node.

29. The machine readable medium of claim 24, wherein the cost evaluation transmitted to the second node is a cached result stored by the first node from a previous inquiry for the resource.

30. The machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein generating the cost evaluation includes determining if the requested resource is present in a network, without considering a cost of transcoding the resource and a cost of transmitting the resource.

17. A machine readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions, which when executed cause a node to perform a method comprising:

A first node receiving an inquiry for a resource from a second node;

The first node generating a cost evaluation of obtaining the resource; and

The first node transmitting the cost evaluation to the second node for use in selecting where to obtain the resource.

31. A method comprising:

A first node receiving an inquiry for a resource from a second node;

The first node generating a cost evaluation of obtaining the resource, the cost evaluation includes generating a cost of transcoding the resource from a first parameter constraint to a second parameter constraint, and a cost of transmitting the resource, wherein the cost evaluation generated by the first node comprises

c(N_L,R,P_i)=min min{c(N_n,R,P_j)+c_t(N_L, N_n,R,P_i)+c_x(R,P_i,P_j)}, wherein c(N_n, R, P_j) is a cost of the first node obtaining the requested resource of an initial parameter constraint P_J, c_t(N_L, N_n, R, P_j) is a cost of transmitting the resource from a separate node, and c_x(R, P_i, P_j) is a cost of the second node converting the requested resource from an initial parameter constraint P_j to a target parameter constraint P_i; and

The first node transmitting the cost evaluation to the second node for use in selecting where to obtain the resource.