Streaming media content delivery system and method for delivering streaming content

• US 20060230170A1
• Filed: 03/30/2005
• Published: 10/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kee, Thomas Renfer, Chintala, Ajay Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 7,860,993 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• 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 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

A method for delivering streaming media files to a plurality of end users from a streaming media delivery system including a filer for storing the media files and a streaming server for serving the media files generally includes the steps of monitoring demand for the streaming media files, identifying at least one of the streaming media files to be cached when demand for the at least one of the streaming media files reaches a pre-defined threshold, copying the streaming media file to a streaming server from a media storage device, and streaming the streaming media file using the copy stored locally on the streaming server.

Claims

13. A method of delivering streaming content from a streaming media delivery system including a filer storing the streaming content and a streaming server for delivering the streaming content to a plurality of users over a network, the method comprising:

attempting to look up a stream path on the streaming server in response to a request for the streaming content;

increasing a miss tally stored on the streaming server if the stream path is not found;

copying the streaming content from the filer to streaming server when the miss tally reaches a pre-defined threshold; and

streaming the streaming content locally from the streaming server in response to a subsequent request for the streaming content.

1. A method for delivering streaming media files to a plurality of end users, comprising:

monitoring demand for the streaming media files;

identifying at least one of the streaming media files to be cached when demand for the at least one of the streaming media files reaches a first pre-defined threshold;

copying the streaming media file to a streaming server from a media storage device; and

streaming the streaming media file using the copy stored locally on the streaming server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of monitoring demand further comprises:

in response to a request for one of the streaming media files,

accessing a data table to determine whether the requested streaming media file is stored locally on the streaming server; and

increasing an incremental count each time the streaming media file is missed.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the threshold is a percentage of streaming media files with the highest incremental count.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the data table includes a stream identifier and stream path for each of the streaming media files stored locally on the streaming server.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the request for one of the streaming media files includes the stream identifier for the requested streaming media file and wherein the step of accessing the data table to determine whether the requested streaming media file is stored locally on the streaming server further comprises:

attempting to look up the stream identifier included in the request.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

accessing the requested streaming media file using the stream path associated with the stream identifier if the stream identifier is found in the data table; and

streaming the requested streaming media file to the end user from the streaming media server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the streaming media file is copied in buffered packets.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the buffered packets are of a pre-configured size.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying at least one of the streaming media files to be cached on a RAMDisk when demand for the at least one of the streaming media files reaches a second pre-defined threshold;

copying the streaming media file to the RAMDisk; and

streaming the streaming media file from the RAMDisk to the end user computer.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the second pre-defined threshold is higher than the first pre-defined threshold.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first and second pre-defined thresholds are a percentage of the streaming media files stored on the media storage device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first pre-defined threshold is the streaming media files with the top fifteen percent of requests and the second pre-defined threshold is the streaming media files with the top seven and one-half percent of misses.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the stream path is stored on a data table on the streaming server and associated with a stream identifier, and the request for the streaming content includes an indication of the stream identifier and wherein the step of attempting to look up the stream path further comprises:

accessing the data table; and

attempting to look up the stream identifier identified by the indication in the request.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the miss tally is increased by one each time the stream path cannot be found on the streaming server.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the streaming content is copied in buffered packets.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the buffered packets are of a pre-configured size.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein a plurality of streaming media files are stored in the filer and wherein the miss tally for each of the plurality of streaming media files is recorded in a tally data table.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising monitoring the miss tally for each of the streaming media files and copying only those that meet the pre-defined threshold.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the pre-defined threshold is the streaming media files having the highest tally.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the pre-defined threshold is the streaming media files with the top fifteen percent of requests recorded in the miss tally.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the second pre-defined threshold is higher than the first pre-defined threshold.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the first and second pre-defined thresholds are a percentage of the streaming media files stored on the media storage device.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first pre-defined threshold is the streaming media files with the top fifteen percent of requests and the second pre-defined threshold is the streaming media files with the top seven and one-half percent of requests.

21-1. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying at least one of the streaming media files to be cached on a RAMDisk when demand for the at least one of the streaming media files reaches a second pre-defined threshold;

copying the streaming media file to the RAMDisk; and

streaming the streaming media file from the RAMDisk to the end user computer.

25. A system for delivering streaming content to an end user computer;

comprising;

a filer storing one or more stream files, each of the stream files being identified by a stream identifier;

a server capable of communication with the filer to retrieve requested stream files;

the server maintaining a first table of stream identifiers and associated network paths to the stream files, a second table of stream identifiers and associated local paths for each of the stream files cached on the server, and a third table including a count of requests for each of the stream files; and

a RAMDisk capable of communication with the filer and the server,

wherein, upon receipt of a request for one of the stream files;

the server access the second table to determine whether the requested one of the stream files is cached on the server or the RAMDisk;

delivering the stream file to the end user computer from the RAMDisk if the stream file is cached thereon;

delivering the stream file to the end user computer from the server if the stream file is cached thereon; and

retrieving the stream file from the filer and delivering the stream file to the end user computer from the server if the stream file has not been cached.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising programming operative on the server to:

monitor demand for the stream file;

cache the stream file on the server when the demand for the stream file reaches a first pre-defined threshold; and

cache the stream file on the RAMDisk when the demand for the stream file reaches a second pre-defined threshold.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the demand is monitored by logging each request for the stream file in a data table.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the first pre-defined threshold is the stream files with the top fifteen percent of requests.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein the second pre-defined threshold is the stream files with the top seven and one-half percent of requests.

30. A software plug-in comprising:

a content mapping component for retrieving a path for cached streaming media files; and

a cache management component for caching high demand streaming media files.

31. The software plug-in of claim 30, wherein the content mapping component accesses a data table including a path for each of the cached streaming media files and the cache management component cached high demand streaming media files by accessing a data table including a ranking of the streaming media files by demand and caching only those streaming media files meeting a pre-defined threshold.