Sparse caching for streaming media

• US 20050066063A1
• Filed: 08/01/2003
• Published: 03/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Carvalho, Thales Paulo de, Choi, Yejin, Grigorovitch, Alexandre V.
• Granted Patent: US 7,941,554 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2335 involving reformatting operations of audio signals, e.g. by converting from one coding standard to another details of audio signal transcoding G10L19/173
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• 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 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

Systems, methods, and data structures are described which allow or caching streaming media file in a manner that allows for storage and retrieval of portions of the streaming media file that are temporally non-contiguous and/or encoded at differing bit rates.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions of a streaming media file, at least a first and a second of the non-contiguous portions being encoded at different bit rates; and

storing the plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions in a single cache file.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first and second non-contiguous portions comprise video data.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first and second non-contiguous portions comprise video data and wherein a third non-contiguous portion comprises audio data.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the cache file is stored in non-volatile memory.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the act of storing comprises:

creating a plurality of media cache streams, each media cache stream being associated with a unique bit rate;

storing the first non-contiguous portion in a media cache stream associated with the bit rate of the first non-contiguous portion;

storing the second non-contiguous portion in a media cache stream associated with the bit rate of the second non-contiguous portion; and

storing the media cache streams in the cache file.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the act of storing comprises:

creating a first media cache stream associated with the bit rate of the first non-contiguous portion;

storing the first non-contiguous portion in a media cache segment of the first media segment stream;

creating a second media cache stream associated with the bit rate of the second non-contiguous portion;

storing the second non-contiguous portion in a media cache segment of the second media cache stream;

creating a byte cache index segment and a byte cache data segment for each media cache segment; and

storing the byte cache index segments and the byte cache data segments in the cache file.

7. A method comprising:

creating a plurality of media cache streams, each media cache stream being associated with a unique bit rate;

receiving a plurality of portions of a streaming media file, each portion being associated with a unique temporal section of the streaming media file;

storing each portion in a media cache segment of a media cache stream associated with a bit rate at which the portion was encoded, at least two of the portions being stored in media cache segments in different media cache streams;

storing each of the media cache streams in a single cache file.

8. A method as defined in claim 7, wherein the act of storing comprises:

creating a byte cache index segment and a byte cache data segment for each media cache segment; and

storing the byte cache index segments and the byte cache data segments in the cache file.

9. A method as defined in claim 7, wherein the act of storing comprises:

creating a byte cache index segment and a byte cache data segment for each segment; and

serializing the byte cache index segments and the byte cache data segments in the cache file.

10. A method as defined in claim 7, wherein the cache file is stored in a non-volatile manner.

11. A system comprising:

a data storage module;

a caching module operable to receive and store a plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions of a streaming media file in a cache file in the data storage module, two or more of the plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions being encoded at different bit rates.

12. A system as defined in claim 11, wherein the data storage module comprises a non-volatile data storage device.

13. A system as defined in claim 11, further comprising:

a processor; and

wherein the caching module comprises processor executable code.

14. A system as defined in claim 11, wherein the caching module comprises:

a media cache module operable;

to store each of the plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions as a media cache segment in one of a plurality of media cache streams; and

parse each media cache segment into a byte cache index segment and a byte cache data segment.

15. A system as defined in claim 11, wherein the caching module comprises:

a media cache module operable to;

store each of the plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions as a media cache segment in one of a plurality of media cache streams, each media cache stream being associated with a different bit rate; and

parse each media cache segment into a byte cache index segment and a byte cache data segment; and

a byte cache module operable to store the byte cache index segments and the byte cache data segments in the cache file.

16. A system as defined in claim 11, wherein the caching module comprises:

a media cache module operable to;

create a plurality of media cache streams, each media cache stream being associated with a unique bit rate; and

store each temporally non-contiguous portion as a media cache segment in a media cache stream associated with a bite rate at which the temporally non-contiguous portion was encoded; and

parse each media cache segment into a byte cache index segment and a byte cache data segment; and

a byte cache module operable to;

store the byte cache index segments and the byte cache data segments in the cache file.

17. A system as defined in claim 11, wherein the two or more of the plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions include a first video portion encoded at a first bit rate, a second video portion encoded at a second bit rate, and an audio portion, and wherein the first video portion, the second video portion, and the audio portion are stored in different media cache streams.

18. A system as defined in claim 11, wherein:

the streaming media file includes different data types; and

the caching module is operable to;

create a plurality of media cache streams, each media cache stream being associated with a streamed media data type and a streamed media encoded bit rate;

store each temporally non-contiguous portion of received streamed media data in a media cache stream associated with the streamed media data type and a streamed media encoded bit rate of the temporally non-contiguous portion; and

store the media cache streams in the cache file.

19. A system as defined in claim 11, wherein:

the streaming media file includes different data types; and

the caching module is operable to;

create a plurality of media cache streams, each media cache stream being associated with a streamed media data type and a streamed media encoded bit rate; and

store each temporally non-contiguous portion of received streamed media data as a media cache segment in a media cache stream associated with the streamed media data type and a streamed media encoded bit rate of the temporally non-contiguous portion;

parse each media cache segment into a byte cache index segment and a byte cache data segment; and

store the byte cache index segments and the byte cache data segments in the cache file.

20. A system as defined in claim 11, wherein the caching module is operable to:

store each of the plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions as a media cache segment in one of a plurality of media cache streams;

create a segment/stream map specifying the media cache segment and stream in which each temporally non-contiguous portion is stored; and

parse each media cache segment into a byte cache index segment and a byte cache data segment.

21. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing acts comprising:

storing at a client a plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions of a streaming media file received from a streaming media source in a cache file, each of the plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions being encoded at a different bit rate.

22. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 21, wherein the act of storing comprises:

receiving a first video portion of the streaming media file encoded at a first bit rate;

storing the first video portion in a media cache video stream associated with the first bit rate;

receiving a second video portion of the streaming media file encoded at a second bit rate;

storing the second video portion in a media cache video stream associated with the second bit rate;

receiving a first audio portion of the streaming media file;

storing the first audio portion in a media cache audio stream; and

storing the audio and video media cache streams in a cache file.

23. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 21, wherein the act of storing comprises:

receiving a first video portion of the streaming media file encoded at a first bit rate;

storing the first video portion in a media cache video stream associated with the first bit rate;

receiving a second video portion of the streaming media file encoded at a second bit rate;

storing the second video portion in a media cache video stream associated with the second bit rate;

receiving a third video portion of the streaming media file encoded at a first bit rate, the a third video portion being temporally non-contiguous from the first video portion;

storing the third video portion in the media cache video stream associated with the first bit rate;

receiving a first audio portion of the streaming media file; and

storing the first audio portion in a media cache audio stream; and

storing the audio and video media cache streams in a cache file.

24. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 21, wherein the act of storing comprises:

storing each of the temporally non-contiguous portions in a unique media cache segment;

forming at least two byte cache segments from each media cache segment; and

storing the byte cache segments in the cache file.

25. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 21, wherein the act of storing comprises:

storing each of the temporally non-contiguous portions in at least two byte cache segments; and

storing the byte cache segments in the cache file.

26. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:

a plurality of data pages including data representing a plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions of a streaming media file received from a streaming media source, at least two of the temporally non-contiguous portions being encoded at different bit rates.

27. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:

a plurality of data pages storing one or more byte cache segments, each byte cache segment being derived from a temporally non-contiguous portion of a streaming media file, at least two of the temporally non-contiguous portions being encoded at different bit rates; and

a header page including information that describes one or more characteristics of the data pages.

28. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 27, wherein the header page includes a plurality of cache file control records, each cache file control record including information describing the location of a single byte cache segment the data pages.

29. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 27, wherein the header page includes a plurality of cache file control records, each cache file control record including information describing a location of a single byte cache segment within the data pages and information indicating a number of pages including the single byte cache record.

30. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 27, wherein the header page includes a plurality of cache file control records, each cache file control record including information describing a beginning and an ending point of a single byte cache segment within the data pages.

31. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 27, wherein:

the header page includes a plurality of cache file control records; and

at least one cache file control record includes an array including the location of each page within the cache file.

32. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 27, wherein:

the header page includes a plurality of cache file control records; and

at least one cache file control record includes information indicating a page containing a beginning of a single byte cache segment and an index specifying a beginning of the single byte cache segment within the page.

33. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 27, wherein:

the header page includes a plurality of cache file control records; and

at least one cache file control record includes information defining a beginning and ending locations of a single byte cache segment in the data pages.

34. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 27, wherein the header page includes a plurality of cache file control records, each cache file control record being associated with a single byte cache segment, each cache file control record identifying a predetermined number of pages including at least a portion of the byte cache segment associated with the cache file control record, each cache file control record including a pointer to a page including information identifying a predetermined number of pages other than the predetermined number of pages including at least a portion of the byte cache segment associated with the cache file.

35. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 27, wherein the header page includes:

a predetermined number of cache file control records, each cache file control record including information describing the location of a single byte cache segment in the data pages; and

a pointer to a cache file control record extension page including cache file control records other than the predetermined number of cache file control records.

36. A system comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions of a streaming media file, at least two of the plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions being encoded at a different bit rate; and

means for associating and storing the plurality of temporally non-contiguous portions in a data structure.