Real-time streaming media measurement system and method

• US 20030105604A1
• Filed: 06/19/2002
• Published: 06/05/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Colorado WSC, LLC
• Original Assignee: Wells Fargo Capital Finance, LLC (Wells Fargo & Company)
• Inventors: Lee, Ryan P.B., Thomas, Michael, Burton, Christopher L., Elven, Darren R., Ash, Leslie E., Wiebel, Michael F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,647,418 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/100
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5061 characterised by the interaction between service providers and their network customers, e.g. customer relationship management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/509 wherein the managed service relates to media content delivery, e.g. audio, video or TV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/087 Jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64738 Monitoring network characteristics, e.g. bandwidth, congestion level data switched network analysis H04L41/14; monitoring functioning in data switched networks H04L43/0817; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10

Abstract

This invention relates to a system and method for performing real-time measurement performance characteristics of streaming media servers over a network.

Claims

1. A system for measuring parameters of a media stream comprising:

a data collection agent configured to couple with at least one designated media stream and collect data associated with the media stream, and

a web server configured to communicate with at least one data collection agent;

wherein the data collection agent is coupled to the web server, the data collection agent receives thereby the parameter set defining a measurement of a media stream from the web server and collects media stream data according to the parameter set, the data collection agent measures data from a media stream, and the data collection agent and web server cooperate to provide a user with real-time performance characteristics associated with the media stream.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user terminal coupled to the web server and configured to formulate the parameter set defining the measurement of the data stream.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the data collection agent is configured to transmit collected media stream data to the web server.

4. A computer network comprising the streaming media measuring system of claim 1.

5. A streaming media measuring system comprising:

a) a web server, and

b) an agent;

wherein the web server is connected directly through a network to the agent, wherein the agent measures data from a media stream, the agent transmits the data to the web server, and the agent and web server cooperate to provide a user with real-time performance characteristics associated with the media stream.

6. A computer network comprising the streaming media measuring system of claim 5.

7. A method of measuring performance data of a media stream comprising:

providing the media stream from a streaming server, wherein the media stream is in a first format, and wherein the media stream is characterized by performance parameters,

measuring the performance parameters characterizing the media stream using a data collection agent,

receiving the media stream by the data collection agent coupled to the streaming server,

transferring the performance parameters from the data collection agent to a web server, and

transferring the performance parameters from the web server to a user terminal,

wherein the data collection agent and web server operate in combination to provide the user terminal with the performance parameters in real-time.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein between transferring the performance parameters to the web server and to the user terminal the method further comprises translating the media stream from the first format to a second format.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising formulating a report on the user terminal, wherein the report comprises at least one performance parameter.

10. A real-time streaming media measuring method, comprising:

a) measuring data from a media stream by an agent, and

b) transmitting data by the agent to a web server,

wherein the step of transmitting is performed directly through a socket connection.

11. The streaming media measuring method according to claim 10, further comprising converting the data into XML format.

12. The streaming media measuring method according to claim 10, further comprising converting the data with a COM object.