File storage for scalable media

• US 20060156363A1
• Filed: 06/29/2005
• Published: 07/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bai, Gang, Zhu, Bin, Wu, Feng, Sun, Xiaoyan
• Application Number:
  US11/170,765
• Publication Number:
  US 20060156363A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/113
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/31 in the temporal domain
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/34 Scalability techniques involving progressive bit-plane based encoding of the enhancement layer, e.g. fine granular scalability [FGS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234327 by decomposing into layers, e.g. base layer and one or more enhancement layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/238 Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidth; Processing of multiplex streams hybrid fiber coaxial [HFC] networks for downstream channel allocation for video distribution H04L12/2801; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25825 involving client display capabilities, e.g. screen resolution of a mobile phone optimising the visualisation of content during browsing in the Internet G06F16/9577; processing of terminal status or physical abilities in wireless networks H04W8/22; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities

Abstract

Exemplary generic file storage for scalable media is described. In one implementation, stored scalable media streams are related as nodes of a directed acyclic graph (DAG) in which directed edges between the nodes describe relationships between scalable media streams. Many different presentations of a media content can be delivered from a DAG storage file. Data space is reduced because different presentations can avail of the same sub-trees in the DAG. In one implementation, exemplary DAG storage files for scalable media have an information structure that allows the DAG file to self-tailor and/or allocate the scalabilities of the media content presentations it is capable of delivering in order to suit the characteristics of a requesting entity.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying multiple scalable streams of media content; and

representing each scalable stream as a node in a directed acyclic graph, wherein each edge between two nodes represents a dependency relationship between two of the multiple scalable streams.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein each node also includes stream properties of the scalable stream represented by the node.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein each node also includes rate-distortion properties of the scalable stream represented by the node.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising storing the multiple scalable streams as a storage file on a computing device, wherein the storing maintains relationships of the directed acyclic graph.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

identifying multiple sets of scalable media streams, wherein each set represents a different presentation of scaled media content and scaled playback characteristics; and

representing each scaled stream of each set as a node in the directed acyclic graph, wherein the nodes of each set have a dependency relationship with each other represented by the edges.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the multiple sets include common scalable streams represented by common nodes of the directed acyclic graph.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising maximizing the number of the common nodes.

8. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising arranging the directed acyclic graph to minimize the number of nodes representing a same scalable stream.

9. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising arranging the directed acyclic graph to eliminate storing a single scalable stream common to multiple sets more than once in the storage file.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

identifying ensembles, each ensemble including a collection of variously scaled presentations for a single media content and a single codec; and

arranging the directed acyclic graph such that different ensembles share no common nodes.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising addressing a set of the scalable streams by their presentation, wherein selection of one of the nodes representing the presentation also selects other dependent nodes in the set.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising allocating an available bandwidth among each selected scalable stream according to rate-distortion data stored with each selected node.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

assigning a weighting factor to the edges between the nodes, wherein the weighting factor is based on a degree of the dependency; and

allocating an available bandwidth among each selected scalable stream in a set according to rate-distortion data stored with each selected node factored by at least one weighting factor of an edge.

14. A data structure for a computer storage file, comprising:

a directed acyclic graph, wherein each node represents a scalable media stream and each edge between nodes represents a dependency relationship between two scalable media streams; and

data objects associated with at least some of the nodes, wherein a data object associated with a node determines at least in part the scaling of a media stream associated with the node.

15. The data structure for a computer storage file as recited in claim 14, wherein the data object associated with the node includes rate-distortion data for the scalable media stream associated with the node.

16. The data structure for a computer storage file as recited in claim 15, wherein the rate-distortion data determines at least in part an allocation of bandwidth for the scalable media stream associated with the node.

17. The data structure for a computer storage file as recited in claim 15, further comprising graph edges representing dependency relationships between media streams of a presentation set, wherein a presentation set includes multiple scalable media streams to provide scaled media content and scaled playback characteristics.

18. The data structure for a computer storage file as recited in claim 17, further comprising multiple presentation sets,

wherein the multiple presentation sets share common nodes representing common scalable media streams and

wherein graph edges from nodes of different presentation sets to a common node are weighted to represent respective contributions of the common node to each of different presentation sets.

19. The data structure for a computer storage file as recited in claim 18, wherein the directed acyclic graph is arranged to maximize the number of common nodes shared by multiple presentation sets.

20. A system, comprising:

means for arranging scalable media streams for computer storage according to relationships of a directed acyclic graph, wherein each node represents a scalable media steam and edges between nodes represent dependencies between the scalable media streams;

means for sharing sub-trees of the directed acyclic graph among different parts of the tree to reduce data space, wherein the different parts of the tree represent differently scaled presentations of the media content; and

means for selecting a node to provide one of the presentations to an application, wherein the presentation requested by the application has scalable properties including one of a frame rate, size, quality, color, frequency, channel, and/or view represented by the node and by additional nodes dependent on the node, wherein a sub-tree of nodes representing the presentation is selected by deriving a directed tree from the selected node to a base layer node to reconstruct the presentation.