Providing streaming media data

• US 20030021282A1
• Filed: 06/21/2002
• Published: 01/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: Western Digital Ventures Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Hospodor, Andrew D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,274,659 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/302 Route determination based on requested QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2416 Real-time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2425 for supporting services specification, e.g. SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/283 in response to processing delays, e.g. caused by jitter or round trip time [RTT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/72 using reservation actions during connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/724 at intermediate nodes, e.g. resource reservation protocol [RSVP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/726 Reserving resources in multiple paths to be used simultaneously by balancing the load H04L47/125
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/741 Holding a request until resources become available
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/745 Reaction in network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/762 triggered by the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/801 Real time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/808 User-type aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/825 Involving tunnels, e.g. MPLS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system for servicing streaming media requests. The system includes stream director nodes and intelligent stream engine nodes, such as permanent storage devices with network interfaces. The stream director node receives a streaming media request and enqueues the request until all resources on a path from the stream engine node having the media object being requested to the user/client system have been reserved. Once reserved, the enqueued request is then serviced by requesting the stream object from the stream engine node, which then transfers the requested stream object between the stream engine node and the user/client system over the prepared path without involving the stream director node. Upon completion, the prepared path is torn down. In one embodiment the prepared path is a Label Switched Path. A provision is made for balancing the load among the stream engine nodes by duplicating stream objects on other stream engine nodes.

Claims

1. A method for servicing a request from a client system for the transfer of a streaming media object which resides in a system that includes at least one stream engine node and at least one stream director node, comprising:

receiving a request for a streaming media object at the stream director node;

locating a stream engine node to which or from which the streaming media object is to be transferred;

verifying that sufficient system resources are available to service request;

preparing a data transfer path between the stream engine node and the client system that made the streaming media request, the stream director node not being included in the data transfer path and the data transfer path including one or more resources along the path;

causing resources along the prepared path to be reserved for use by the data transfer;

passing the request for the streaming media object from the stream director node to the located stream engine node for servicing; and

transferring, over the prepared path, data comprising the streaming media object between the client system that made the request and the located stream engine node.

2. A method for servicing a request from a client system for a streaming media object, as recited in claim 1, further comprising, upon completion of the transfer, tearing down the prepared path and de-allocating the allocated resources.

3. A method for servicing a request from a client system for a streaming media object, as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of directing the stream engine node to transfer, over the prepared path, the data to or from the client system includes performing the data transfer meeting a Quality of Service constraint.

4. A method for servicing a request from a client system for a streaming media object, as recited in claim 3, wherein the Quality of Service constraint includes an upper bound on the response time in servicing the request.

5. A method for servicing a request from a client system for a streaming media object, as recited in claim 3, wherein the Quality of Service constraint includes a lower bound on the throughput in servicing the request.

6. A method for servicing a request from a client system for a streaming media object, as recited in claim 1, wherein a table is employed at the stream director node to keep track of the streaming data objects residing on the stream engine node.

7. A method for servicing a request from a client system for a streaming media object, as recited in claim 1, wherein a table is employed at the stream director node to keep track of the resources that are available in the system for servicing a streaming media request.

8. A method for servicing a request from a client system for a streaming media object, as recited in claim 1, wherein there are two stream engine nodes, the method further comprising the steps of:

determining that one of the stream engine nodes is overloaded by request to at least one streaming media object; and

copying the at least one streaming media object involved in the overload to the other stream engine node so that the other stream engine node services requests for the copied streaming media object.

9. A method for servicing a request from a client system for a streaming media object, as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of receiving a request for a streaming media object at the stream director node includes:

installing a dynamic link library (DLL) containing streaming parameters for a driver on the system;

authenticating a streaming application process;

associating a pointer to the DLL containing streaming parameters for a disk driver with the authenticated streaming application process; and

loading the parameters in the DLL into a device driver for the stream engine node.

10. A system for servicing a request from a client system for a streaming media object, comprising:

at least one stream director node that is configured to;

receive a request for a streaming media object at the stream director node;

locate a stream engine node to which or from which the streaming media object is to be transferred;

verify that sufficient system resources are available to service request;

prepare a data transfer path between the stream engine node and the client system that made the streaming media request, the stream director node not being included in the data transfer path and the data transfer path including one or more resources along the path;

cause resources along the prepared path to be reserved for use by the data transfer;

pass the request for the streaming media object from the stream director node to the located stream engine node for servicing; and

transfer, over the prepared path, data comprising the streaming media object between the client system that made the request and the located stream engine node; and

at least one stream engine node for storing streaming media objects including the requested streaming media object, the stream engine node being configured to;

receive the request for a streaming media object and

transfer, over the prepared path, data comprising the streaming media object between the stream engine node on which the object resides and the client system that made the request.

11. A system for servicing a request from a client system for a streaming media object, as recited in claim 10, wherein the stream engine node is further configured to transfer, over the prepared path, the data between the stream director node and the client system while meeting a Quality of Service constraint.

12. A method of dynamically configuring a device driver for a computer system, comprising:

sending an authentication request, including a license for reconfiguring the device driver for a particular application, to an authentication server;

validating the license at the authentication server;

if the license is validated by the authentication server,

obtaining, from the authentication server, a file containing parameters for reconfiguring the device driver for the particular application,

installing the file containing the parameters on the computer system, and

loading the parameters from the installed file into the device driver to reconfigure the driver for operation with the particular application.

13. A method of dynamically configuring a device driver for a computer system as recited in claim 12, wherein the authentication server is a server connected to the Internet.

14. A method of dynamically configuring a device driver for a computer system as recited in claim 12,

wherein the particular application is a streaming application;

and

wherein the file contains parameters for reconfiguring the device driver for the streaming application.

15. A method of dynamically configuring a device driver for a computer system as recited in claim 12, wherein the computer system is a client computer system.

16. A method of dynamically configuring a device driver for a computer system as recited in claim 12, wherein the computer system is a server computer system.