SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ROUTING STREAMING DATA REQUESTS

• US 20080140850A1
• Filed: 12/08/2006
• Published: 06/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gade, Bhargavaram, Madison, Justin
• Granted Patent: US 8,713,192 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1013 Network architectures, gateways, control or user entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8044 Least cost routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/745 Least cost routing, e.g. Automatic or manual, call by call or by preselection

Abstract

Against this backdrop systems and methods have been developed for selecting a least-cost transmission route for streaming data between a server and client. In an embodiment, a client sends a request for data to a gateway. The gateway maintains information regarding the servers available to stream the data and the costs associated with the different networks available between the servers and the client. From this information the gateway identified what transmission routes are available and selects the lowest cost transmission route for streaming the data. If comparable cost transmission routes are found, a selection is made based on secondary criteria. The client is the directed by the gateway to send a request to the appropriate server to stream the data via the selected transmission route.

Claims

1. A method of streaming data from a first server computing device to a client computing device comprising:

receiving a request to stream data to a client computing device;

selecting a first transmission route between the first server computing device and the client computing device from a set of available transmission routes between the first server computing device and the client computing device based on a cost of the first transmission route relative to the cost of the other available transmission routes; and

streaming the data from the first server computing device to the client computing device via the first transmission route.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

if the first server computing device has previously streamed data to the client computing device, identifying transmission routes previously used to stream data to the client computing device as the set of available transmission routes between the first server computing device and the client computing device.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

if the first server computing device has not previously streamed data to the client computing device,

determining a network associated with the client computing device based on information contained in the request; and

identifying the set of available transmission routes as those transmission routes available between the first server computing device and the network.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein selecting further comprises:

identifying a plurality of server computing devices capable of streaming the data to the client computing device, the plurality of server computing devices including the first server computing device;

identifying the set of available transmission routes from each of the plurality of server computing devices to the client computing device.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

selecting, as the first transmission route, the lowest cost transmission route in the set of available transmission routes from each of the plurality of server computing devices to the client computing device.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

determining that the first transmission route from the first server computing device and one or more other available transmission routes from at least one other of the plurality of server computing devices to the client computing device are within a predetermined cost range.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

determining that the first server computing device is physically closer to the client computing device than the at least one other of the plurality of server computing devices based on information contained in the request; and

selecting the first server computing device to stream the data to the client computing device.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

estimating a communication latency between the client computing device and the at least one other of the plurality of server computing devices and between the client computing device and the first server computing device; and

selecting the first server computing device based on the estimated communication latencies.

9. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

maintaining information identifying transmission routes previously used to stream data to the client computing device from the first server computing device.

10. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

maintaining information identifying transmission routes previously used to stream data to the network from the first server computing device.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

transmitting a response to the client computing device, the response directing the client computing device to transmit a direct request to the first server, the direct request being a request to stream the data to the client computing device via the first transmission route.

12. A system for streaming data to a client computing device comprising:

a first server computing device having access to a copy of the data, wherein a set of available transmission routes exist between the first server computing device and the client computing device over which the first server computing device can stream the data to the client computing device; and

a gateway that receives a data request from the client computing device and that selects a first transmission route from the set of available transmission routes between the first server computing device and the client computing, the gateway selecting the first transmission route from the set of available transmission routes based on a transmission cost associated with each of the set of available transmission routes.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the gateway is remote from the first server computing device and the client computing device.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the gateway further transmits a response to the client computing device, the response directing the client computing device to transmit a direct request to the first server, the direct request being a request to stream the data to the client computing device via the first transmission route.

15. The system of claim 12 further comprising:

a plurality of independent server computing devices remote from each other and each having access to a copy of the data, the plurality including the first server computing device, wherein each of the plurality of server computing devices has a set of available transmission routes between the respective server computing device and the client computing device, each transmission route being associated with a transmission cost.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the first transmission route selected by the selection module is a least cost transmission route between the plurality of server computing devices having access to a copy of the data and the client computing device.

17. The system of claim 14 further comprising:

cost information associating a transmission cost with each one of the set of available transmission routes between the first server computing device and the client computing device, the cost information accessible by the gateway.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the gateway selects the first server computing device based on the transmission cost associated with first transmission route.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein the gateway selects the first server computing device based on the transmission cost associated with first transmission route and a latency associated with the first transmission route relative to latencies associated with the other available transmission routes.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein the gateway selects the first server computing device based on the transmission cost associated with first transmission route and a proximity of the first server computing device to the client computing device relative to proximities of the other server computing devices to the client computing device.

21. A computer-readable medium encoding computer-executable instructions for performing a method of streaming data from a first server computing device to a client computing device, the method comprising:

receiving a request to stream data to a client computing device;

selecting a first transmission route between the first server computing device and the client computing device from a set of available transmission routes between the first server computing device and the client computing device based on a cost of the first transmission route relative to costs of the other available transmission routes; and

transmitting a response to the client computing device, the response directing the client computing device to transmit a direct request to the first server, the direct request being a request to stream the data to the client computing device via the first transmission route.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21 further comprising computer-executable instructions for:

if the first server computing device has previously streamed data to the client computing device, identifying transmission routes previously used to stream data to the client computing device as the set of available transmission routes between the first server computing device and the client computing device.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 21 further comprising computer-executable instruction for:

if the first server computing device has not previously streamed data to the client computing device,

determining a network associated with the client computing device based on information contained in the request; and

identifying the set of available transmission routes as those transmission routes available between the first server computing device and the network.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 21 wherein selecting further comprises:

identifying a plurality of server computing devices capable of streaming the data to the client computing device, the plurality of server computing devices including the first server computing device; and

identifying the set of available transmission routes from each of the plurality of server computing devices to the client computing device.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 24 further comprising computer-executable instruction for:

selecting, as the first transmission route, the lowest cost transmission route in the set of available transmission routes from each of the plurality of server computing devices to the client computing device.

26-30. -30. (canceled)