Decentralized media delivery

• US 20040216164A1
• Filed: 04/01/2004
• Published: 10/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: William Hayhurst
• Original Assignee: William Hayhurst
• Inventors: Hayhurst, William
• Application Number:
  US10/491,511
• Publication Number:
  US 20040216164A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/86
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23103 using load balancing strategies, e.g. by placing or distributing content on different disks, different memories or different servers storage management G06F3/0604; allocation of resources considering the load in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/505; techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system G06F9/5083; access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. load balancing, in data networks H04L67/1001
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23473 by pre-encrypting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4402 involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A decentralized approach to delivering a media file to a requesting subscriber in a network of subscribers comprises the steps of segmenting the media file into a plurality of segments and distributing the segments of the media file among the network of subscribers, and responding to a request from the requesting subscriber by directing to that requesting subscriber all of the plurality of segments of the media file. All of segments are assembled into the media file and displayed or stored by the requesting subscriber.

Claims

1. A method of delivering a media file that is requested by a requesting subscriber of a network of subscribers, comprising the steps of:

segmenting the media file into a plurality of segments;

distributing the segments of the media file among the network of subscribers for storage on respective units of the subscribers; and

responding to a request from the requesting subscriber by directing to that requesting subscriber all of the plurality of segments of the media file.

2. The method of claim 1 including the step of assembling into the media file all of the segments that are directed to the requesting subscriber.

3. The method of claim 2 including the step of storing the assembled media file in a storage device of the requesting subscriber.

4. The method of claim 1 including the step of copying the segments of the media file and wherein the distributing step includes distributing the copied segments among the network of subscribers in a manner such that any particular segment of the media file is stored on at least two different subscriber units.

5. The method of claim 1 including the step of preventing display of the individual segments of the media file by the subscribers to whom the segments are distributed.

6. The method of claim 2 including the step of allowing display of only the assembled media file by providing authorization to the requesting subscriber.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the distributed segments represent a first media file, the method including the step of distributing among the network of subscribers a plurality of segments of a second media file.

8. The method of claim 1 including the steps of:

directing the request to a controller; and

relaying the request from the controller to the network of subscribers, whereby the controller thereafter instructs the network of subscribers to direct to the requesting subscriber all of the plurality of segments of the media file.

9. The method of claim 1 including the steps of:

directing the request to the network of subscribers, whereby in response to the request the network of subscribers directs to the requesting subscriber all of the plurality of segments of the media file.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the distributing step includes tracking the location of the distributed segments in the subscriber network.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the segmenting step includes forming a bundle of several discontinuous portions of the media file.

12. The method of claim 1 including the step of encrypting each of the segments of the media file.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein segmenting the media file includes segmenting the file into a plurality of packets that include header information to enable assembly of the packets into the media file and storage of the media file in the unit of the requesting subscriber.

14. A method of storing a media file, such as a movie, comprising the steps of:

providing a network of subscribers;

distributing discrete segments of the movie to storage locations of at least some of the subscribers; and

tracking the storage locations of the segments thereby to enable subsequent collection and assembly of the segments into the media file.

15. The method of claim 14 including the step of preventing display of any stored, discrete segment of the movie by the subscribers.

16. A subscriber network for storing a media file comprising:

a number of subscriber units each unit including storage device for storing a segment of the media file;

a plurality of segments of the media file that are adapted for assembly into the media file, the segments being distributed among the subscriber units; and

network means for directing to a requesting one of the subscribers all of the segments of the media file.

17. The network of claim 16 wherein the media file comprises a movie.

18. The network of claim 17 wherein the segments each comprise several discontinuous portions of the movie.

19. The network of claim 16 further comprising a plurality of segments of another media file that are adapted for assembly into the other media file, the plurality of segments of the other media file being distributed among the subscriber units.