Methods and Systems for Adaptive Delivery of Multimedia Contents

• US 20060129671A1
• Filed: 01/24/2006
• Published: 06/15/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zhang, Hong-Jiang, Yang, Yudong
• Application Number:
  US11/275,676
• Publication Number:
  US 20060129671A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Methods and systems for generic adaptive multimedia content delivery are described. In one embodiment, a novel framework features an abstract content model and an abstract adaptive delivery decision engine. The abstract content model recognizes important aspects of contents while hiding their physical details from other parts of the framework. The decision engine then makes content adaptation plans based on the abstracted model of the contents and needs little knowledge of any physical details of the actual contents. Thus, under the same framework, adaptive delivery of generic contents is possible.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a content request from a content requester;

retrieving the requested content from a content source;

processing the retrieved content to provide an abstract content model comprising a directional graph featuring a top-down hierarchical structure having nodes that represent components of the content and edges that represent relationships between the nodes, the nodes being configured to have a node status that defines dynamic statuses of nodes during content delivery, the node statuses being selected from a group of statuses comprising;

(1) inactive status where the node is not yet a deliverable object, (2) activable status wherein an active condition of the node is satisfied but the node is not yet included in a delivery plan, (3) activated status wherein the node has been chosen in a delivery plan, (4) delivered status wherein the node has been delivered successfully to a content receiver, and (5) skipped status wherein the node is not delivered and will not be included in the delivery plan; and

wherein there are multiple different types of edges selected from a group of types comprising;

(1) a dependency edge type that defines a logical dependency between nodes, (2) a route edge type that defines an ordered or hierarchical dependency between nodes, and (3) a mixed edge type that defines a logical dependency between nodes and an ordered or hierarchical dependency between nodes;

processing the abstract content model to select an optimal delivery plan the use of which will permit requested content to be delivered to the content requester; and

processing the abstract content model to provide deliverable content in accordance with the selected delivery plan.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the abstract content model comprises an ignition edge that is defined as a dependency edge from a node that is activated, delivered or skipped.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein nodes have active conditions that define how a node becomes activable.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein nodes have active conditions that define how a node becomes activable, one of the conditions comprising an automatic condition wherein the node is automatically activable.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein nodes have active conditions that define how a node becomes activable, one of the conditions comprising an OR condition wherein the node is activable if at least one of its input edges is an ignition edge.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein nodes have active conditions that define how a node becomes activable, one of the conditions comprising an AND condition wherein the node is activable only if all its input edges are ignition edges.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein nodes can have input conditions that define when an activable node can be activated.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein nodes can have a value associated with a Quality of Service (QoS) factor which defines an increment to content quality when this node has been delivered.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein nodes can have a resource factor that defines an amount of resources needed to deliver the node.