Method for streaming multimedia content

• US 20060075453A1
• Filed: 07/13/2005
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Choi, Kyu-Tae
• Granted Patent: US 8,166,154 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/135
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/24 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth, upstream requests monitoring of server performance or load G06F11/34; arrangements for observation, testing or troubleshooting for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26208 the scheduling operation being performed under constraints
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• 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 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

Streaming multimedia content from a content server to client, user multimedia devices (UMDs) connected to the content server through a network includes the steps of monitoring storage states, of UMDs connected to the network, for preset multimedia content, and automatically transmitting a starting block of the content to any UMD not yet storing the block. Tasks preparatory to streaming are advantageously off-loaded to the client side and distributed among UMDs, to realize reduced bandwidth and delay and to conserve on storage capacity of a UMD.

Claims

1. A method for streaming over a network, from a content server to user multimedia devices (UMDs) connected to the content server through said network, the method comprising the acts of:

1) monitoring storage states of the connected UMDs for a preset multimedia content; and

2) if a UMD of said UMDs does not store a starting block of said multimedia content, transmitting, automatically and without user intervention, the starting block to said UMD.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, at least some of said storage states being associated with multimedia content stored on said UMDs, wherein the act 1) includes the acts of:

a) requesting of said UMDs content information including information regarding a starting block and indexing blocks of the stored multimedia content; and

b) detecting an indexing distribution state among the UMDs based on the content information received as a result of the act a).

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the act of receiving, in response to said requesting, at least some of said content information, said detecting occurring based on the content information received in said receiving.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein all of the content information requested in the act a) is received in said receiving.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said detecting occurs by examining said content information received in said receiving.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said monitoring is performed automatically and without user intervention.

7. A computer-based method for streaming over a network, from a content server to user multimedia devices (UMDs) connected to the content server through said network, the computer-based method comprising the acts of:

1) monitoring storage states of the connected UMDs for a preset multimedia content; and

2) if a UMD of said UMDs requests the multimedia content, authorizing another of said UMDs storing an indexing block corresponding to the multimedia content to transmit the indexing block to a content-requesting UMD which requests the multimedia content,

wherein at least one of the acts

     1) and

     2) is performed by a computer without user intervention.

8. The computer-based method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the act 1) monitors stored multimedia content and includes the acts of:

a) requesting of said UMDs content information including information regarding a starting block and indexing blocks of the stored multimedia content; and

b) detecting an indexing distribution state among the UMDs based on the content information received from the UMDs.

9. The computer-based method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the act 2) includes the acts of:

c) transmitting, to said content-requesting UMD, availability information including information regarding one or more of said UMDs storing an indexing block corresponding to said multimedia content; and

d) authorizing at least one of the one or more UMDs to transmit said indexing block corresponding to said multimedia content in response to a transmission request of said content-requesting UMD, said authorizing entailing transmitting session information including information regarding said content-requesting UMD to the at least one UMD included in the availability information.

10. The computer-based method as claimed in claim 7, further comprising the act of transmitting multimedia blocks corresponding to the multimedia content to said content-requesting UMD.

11. A content server for streaming over a network to user multimedia devices (UMDs) connected to the content server through said network, said server being configured for:

1) monitoring storage states of the connected UMDs for a preset multimedia content; and

2) if a UMD of said UMDs does not store a starting block of said multimedia content, transmitting, automatically and without user intervention, the starting block to said UMD.

12. The server of claim 11, configured for performing said monitoring automatically and without user intervention.

13. A content server for streaming over a network to user multimedia devices (UMDs) connected to the content server through said network, said server being configured for performing the acts of:

1) monitoring storage states of the connected UMDs for a preset multimedia content; and

2) if a UMD of said UMDs requests the multimedia content, authorizing another of said UMDs storing an indexing block corresponding to the multimedia content to transmit the indexing block to a content-requesting UMD which requests the multimedia content,

the server being configured to perform at least one of the acts

     1) and

     2) automatically and without user intervention.

14. The server of claim 13, wherein the act 1) monitors stored multimedia content and includes the acts of:

a) requesting of said UMDs content information including information regarding a starting block and indexing blocks of the stored multimedia content; and

b) detecting an indexing distribution state among the UMDs based on the content information received from the UMDs.

15. The server of claim 13, wherein the act 2) includes the acts of:

c) transmitting, to said content-requesting UMD, availability information including information regarding one or more of said UMDs storing an indexing block corresponding to said multimedia content; and

d) authorizing at least one of the one or more UMDs to transmit said indexing block corresponding to said multimedia content in response to a transmission request of said content-requesting UMD by transmitting session information including information regarding said content-requesting UMD to the at least one UMD included in the availability information.

16. A system comprising the server of claim 13, and further comprising said UMDs, wherein said acts include the act of transmitting multimedia blocks corresponding to the multimedia content to said content-requesting UMD.

17. The system of claim 16, configured such that said act of transmitting multimedia blocks is performed by a UMD of said UMDs.

18. A computer software product, embodied within a computer-readable medium, for streaming over a network, from a content server to user multimedia devices (UMDs) connected to the content server through said network, said product comprising instructions for:

1) monitoring storage states of the connected UMDs for a preset multimedia content; and

2) if a UMD of said UMDs does not store a starting block of said multimedia content, transmitting, automatically and without user intervention, the starting block to said UMD.

19. The product of claim 18, at least some of said storage states being associated with multimedia content stored on said UMDs, wherein said monitoring includes:

a) requesting of said UMDs content information including information regarding a starting block and indexing blocks of the stored multimedia content; and

b) detecting an indexing distribution state among the UMDs based on the content information received as a result of said requesting.

20. A user multimedia device for receiving, from a content server, streamed content over a network, said device being configured for:

storing an indexing block corresponding to the multimedia content; and

transmitting the indexing block to a content-requesting user multimedia device which requests the multimedia content, said content-requesting device being connected to said server through said network.