Glitch-Free Media Streaming

• US 20080022005A1
• Filed: 07/24/2006
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Liu, Yi, Wu, Feng, Gao, Guangping
• Granted Patent: US 7,783,773 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

Glitch-free media streaming is provided by a client computing device (“client”) independent of whether a remote computing device (“host”) associated with media content provides real-time media content streaming services. Specifically, the client computing device (“client”) provides a user with real-time media content streaming services by establishing multiple connections to the host to read respective portions of the media content by sending byte-range transport protocol requests to the host. As the reading operations progress, the client evaluates transmit rates over respective ones of the connections in view of a real-time media content playback rate to regulate data flow into a streaming media buffer and provide the user with a consistent high-quality (glitch-free) streaming media presentation.

Claims

1. A method at least partially implemented by a computer, the method comprising:

providing, by a client computing device (“

client”

), media content streaming services to a user to stream media content from a remote computing device (“

host”

), the providing being independent of whether the host implements media content streaming services, the client providing the media content streaming services by;

establishing, multiple transport protocol connections (“

connections”

) to the host;

tasking each connection of at least a subset of the connections to read a particular data segment of the media content, the data segment identifying a respective offset into the media content and a number of bytes to read;

managing connection tasks to regulate data input into a streaming media buffer for storing received data segments of the media content; and

removing data from the streaming media buffer for real-time playback to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transport protocol connections are based on HTTP.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the multiple connections further comprises:

estimating an optimal number of connections to establish based on criteria for playback quality, data segment downloading, and buffer management; and

wherein the multiple number of connections established is the optimal number of connections.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein managing the connection tasks further comprises evaluating an amount of media content received in the streaming media buffer and a rate at which data is being taken out of the streaming media buffer for real-time streaming playback to the user.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, before establishing the multiple connections:

requesting media content header information from the host to identify file size of the media content, transmit time(s), request overhead, a bit-rate indicating a minimum streaming speed for real-time playback of media content to a user; and

wherein one or more sizes of the multiple data segment sizes are based on information determined from requesting the media content header information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein managing the connection tasks to regulate data input into the streaming media buffer further comprises:

monitoring each connection for completion of a respective current task; and

responsive to the monitoring;

(a) determining whether to task the connection at task completion to get a different data segment of the media content, whether to task a different connection of the connections to read the different data segment, or whether to task a different connection of the connections to assist the connection in completing the respective current task by reading at least a portion of the data segment; and

(b) checking whether to change the respective data segment size for the connection based at least on buffer status, transmit time, and request overhead on the connection.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining further comprises:

comparing transmit speed of the connection to speed at which a media player is removing bytes from the streaming media buffer to determine if data gap will occur unless the next data segment is tasked to the different connection; and

checking for buffer overflow conditions.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the number of bytes for the connection based on periodic determinations of the transmit rate on the connection, request overhead on the connection, byte-size of the media content, and bit-rate at which the media content was encoded.

9. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-program instructions executable by a processor, the computer-program instructions when executed by the processor for performing operations comprising:

establishing, by a computing device (“

client”

) multiple transport protocol connections (“

connections”

) to a remote computing device (“

host”

), the connections being established to download media content from the host;

reading, by the client, each bit of the media content using at least a subset of the connections by;

assigning each connection of the at least a subset a respective task to read a respective data segment of the media content, the respective data segment indicating a respective offset into the media content and a respective data segment size;

monitoring each connection for completion of the respective task;

responsive to the monitoring;

(a) determining whether to again task the connection at completion of the respective task to get a next data segment at a next offset into the media content, whether to task a different connection of the connections to read the next data segment, or whether to task a different connection of the connections to read at least a portion of the next data segment to assist the connection is completing the respective task; and

(b) checking whether to change the respective data segment size for the connection;

responsive to the assigning, receiving, by the client, a data segment of the media content into a buffer; and

removing, by the client, data from the buffer for real-time playback to a user.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the transport protocol connections are HTTP connections.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein establishing the multiple connections further comprises:

estimating an optimal number of connections to establish based on criteria for playback quality, downloading data segments, and streaming buffer management; and

wherein the multiple number of connections established is the optimal number of connections.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein determining whether to again task the connection at completion of the respective task to get the next data segment at the next offset or whether to task the different connection to read the next data segment further comprises:

comparing transmit speed of the connection to playback speed to determine if data underflow in the buffer will occur unless the next data segment is tasked to the different connection; and

checking for buffer overflow conditions.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein monitoring the connection is based on an amount of media content received in the buffer and a rate at which data is being taken out of the buffer for real-time streaming playback to the user.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising, before establishing the multiple connections:

requesting media content header information from the host to identify file size of the media content, transmit time(s), request overhead, a bit-rate indicating a minimum streaming speed for real-time playback of media content to a user; and

wherein one or more sizes of the multiple data segment sizes are based on information determined from requesting the media content header information.

15. A computing device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising computer-program instructions for execution by the processor, the computer-program instructions for performing operations comprising;

identifying an optimal number of HTTP connections to establish between the computing device and a remote computing device that is hosting the media content, the identifying being based at least on current channel bandwidth on a connection to the remote computing device (“

host”

), overhead of sending an HTTP request to the host over the connection, speed at which portions of the media content that have been downloaded to the computing device are removed from a buffer, and size of the buffer;

establishing, the optimal number of HTTP connections to the host;

configuring each of the connections to read a particular number of bytes of the media content at a particular offset into the media content, the particular number of bytes being less than a total size of the piece of media content; and

managing media content data segment download operations over each connection in view of fluctuating network bandwidth conditions to regulate data input into the buffer and provide a real-time media playback operation with a consistent stream of media content bits at a particular playback speed.

16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein identifying the optimal number of HTTP connections further comprises requesting media content header information from the host to identify file size of the media content, transmit time(s), request overhead, a bit-rate indicating a minimum streaming speed for real-time playback of media content to a user.

17. The computing device of claim 15, wherein managing the media content data segment download operations over each connection further comprises:

monitoring the connection for completion of a respective current task to download a data segment of the media content; and

responsive to the monitoring;

(a) determining whether to task the connection at task completion to get a different data segment of the media content, whether to task a different connection of the connections to read the different data segment, or whether to task a different connection of the connections to assist the connection in completing the respective current task by reading at least a portion of the data segment; and

(b) checking whether to change the respective data segment size for the connection based at least on buffer status, transmit time, and request overhead on the connection.

18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the determining further comprises:

comparing transmit speed of the connection to speed at which a media player is removing bytes from the buffer to determine if data gap will occur unless the next data segment is tasked to the different connection; and

checking for buffer overflow conditions.

19. The computing device of claim 15, further comprising determining, for each connection, the particular number of bytes based on periodic determinations of the transmit rate on the connection, request overhead on the connection, byte-size of the media content, and bit-rate at which the media content was encoded.

20. The computing device of claim 19, wherein determining the particular number of bytes further comprises:

determining a distance between a current reading position in the media content and a next reading position in the media content;

if the distance is smaller than a threshold distance;

(a) increasing the particular number of bytes to include bytes associated with the next reading position; and

(b) adjusting request overhead time to reflect that the connection will be tasked to read a larger data segment size.