Systems and methods for supporting the delivery of streamed content

• US 20030158928A1
• Filed: 11/13/2002
• Published: 08/21/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nine Systems Corp. (Akamai Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nine Systems Corp. (Akamai Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sherry, James S., Snyder, Troy S., Levine, Randy, Knox, Christopher R.
• Application Number:
  US10/293,946
• Publication Number:
  US 20030158928A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers

Abstract

Server systems have distributed file systems that provides services for loading, staging, distributing and delivering streamed media content. The file system may be remotely accessible through a web browser, or other client application. The file system described herein can allow a customer of the hosting server to access and control the web site files from a remote location, and manipulate and manage the files stored on the host site, to configure the site as desired. To this end, the distributed file system provides a process for allowing a user to upload streaming media content from a client site to the host, or to another location accessible by the file system. A staging process allows the user to set or adjust meta-data characteristics of the uploaded media asset, and a distribution process is capable of replicating the media asset and distributing the replicated versions of that asset across the data network.

Claims

1. A computer network system for supporting a user in managing streaming media assets, comprising

a server having

an upload process for receiving a media asset having content for being streamed across a data network,

a check-in process for allowing a user to assign meta-data to the media asset,

a storage process for replicating and for storing the media asset across storage devices distributed across the computer network system, and

an editing process for allowing a user to modify the meta-data and for propagating modifications to the meta-data to the replicated and stored media assets.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the check-in process allows a user to assign meta-data representative of data selected from the group consisting of file title, file author, run start point, run stop point, and bit rate.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the server includes a web server for exchanging data with a web client and for allowing a web client to access services provided thereby.

4. A system according to claim 3, wherein the web client comprises a browser.

5. A system according to claim 1 further including a link generator process for generating an embeddable link for accessing a media asset.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein the link generator process comprises a process for generating an embeddable link for accessing a media asset stored by the server.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein the storage process includes an overlay process for storing media assets across a content delivery network.

8. A system according to claim 1, further including a monitoring system having a plurality of agents located on the computer network and capable of monitoring characteristics of a delivery process for transmitting a media asset from the server.

9. A system according to claim 8, wherein the plurality of agents include agents capable of monitoring characteristics representative of the quality of service of the delivery process.

10. A system according to claim 9, wherein the characteristics representative of the quality of service include characteristics selected from the group consisting of average bit-rate, packet loss, and latency.

11. A system according to claim 8, wherein the server further comprises a process for receiving information from at least one of the plurality of agents for generating a report representative of quality of service provided during delivery of a media asset.

12. A system according to claim 11, further comprising

a load balancing system responsive to the information received from the plurality of agents for locating the media asset as a function of network resources.

13. A system according to claim 8, further comprising a distribution system for determining a storage location on the network for the media asset as a function of the network proximity to one or more nodes likely to request access to the respective media asset.

14. A system according to claim 1, further comprising a control system for controlling access of a user to a media asset.

15. A system according to claim 14, wherein said controller includes means for controlling the number of times a user accesses a media asset.

16. A system according to claim 1, further comprising a monitoring system for monitoring use of a media asset and characteristics of the use.

17. A system according to claim 16, further comprising a billing system for determining a billing cost as a function of use of a media asset.

18. A method for supporting a user in delivering a streaming media asset over a data network, comprising

providing a web server for allowing a client to access services for managing the streaming media asset, the web server having access to

an upload process for receiving a media asset having content for being streamed across a data network,

a check-in process for allowing a user to assign meta-data to the media asset,

a storage process for replicating and for storing the media asset across storage devices distributed across the computer network system, and

an editing process for allowing a user to modify the meta-data and for propagating modifications to the meta-data to the replicated and stored media assets, and

allowing a client to access said web server and for employing managing the streaming media asset.

19. A method according to claim 18, further including

providing a service profile representative of a level of service subscribed to by an associated user.

20. A method according to claim 19, further including

determining a cost for delivering a streaming media asset as a function of the subscribed level of service.