APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR MULTI-BITRATE CONTENT STREAMING

• US 20080195743A1
• Filed: 02/09/2007
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Advanced Technologies L.L.C. (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Brueck, David F., Hurst, Mark B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,818,444 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/183 Provision of network file services by network file servers, e.g. by using NFS, CIFS network file access protocols H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/71 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/801 Real time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/24 Systems for the transmission of television signals using pulse code modulation H04N21/00 takes precedence

Abstract

An apparatus for multi-bitrate content streaming includes a receiving module configured to capture media content, a streamlet module configured to segment the media content and generate a plurality of streamlets, and an encoding module configured to generate a set of streamlets. The system includes the apparatus, wherein the set of streamlets comprises a plurality of streamlets having identical time indices and durations, and each streamlet of the set of streamlets having a unique bitrate, and wherein the encoding module comprises a master module configured to assign an encoding job to one of a plurality of host computing modules in response to an encoding job completion bid. A method includes receiving media content, segmenting the media content and generating a plurality of streamlets, and generating a set of streamlets.

Claims

1. An apparatus for multi-bitrate content streaming, the apparatus comprising:

a receiving module configured to receive media content;

a streamlet module configured to segment the media content and generate a plurality of sequential streamlets; and

an encoding module configured to encode each streamlet as a separate content file.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the encoding module is further configured to generate a set of streamlets for each of the sequential streamlets.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the streamlet module is further configured to segment the media content into a plurality of streamlets, each streamlet comprising a portion of the media content having a predetermined length of time.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the encoding module is configured to encode multiple streamlets in parallel and generate streamlets having a predetermined length of time.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the encoding module is further configured to encode the streamlets in a time-selective manner so that the streamlets are processed successively at a regular time interval.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the encoding module is further configured to transmit the encoded streamlets at the regular time interval.

7. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the predetermined length of time is in the range of between about 0.1 and 5 seconds.

8. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the predetermined length of time is in the range of between about 1 and 3 seconds.

9. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the predetermined length of time is in the range of between about 1.5 and 2.5 seconds.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the set of streamlets comprises a plurality of streamlets having identical time indices, and each streamlet of the set of streamlets having a unique bitrate.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the receiving module is configured to convert the media content to raw audio.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the receiving module is configured to convert the media content to raw video.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the streamlet module is configured to segment the content media into a plurality of sequential streamlets.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the encoding module comprises a master module configured to assign an encoding job to one of a plurality of hosts in response to an encoding job completion bid.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein each is configured to submit an encoding job completion bid based on a plurality of computing variables.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the plurality of computing variables is selected from a group consisting of current encoding job completion percentage, average encoding job completion time, processor speed, and physical memory capacity.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the encoding module is configured to encode streamlets with an offset parallel processing scheme such that the streamlets are published at regular time intervals, the time intervals being less than the time of processing and sufficient to play the media content in real time.

18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the encoding module is configured to encode streamlets with an offset parallel processing scheme such that the streamlets are published at regular time intervals, the time intervals being greater than the time of processing and sufficient to play the media content in real time.

19. A system for multi-bitrate content streaming, the system comprising:

a receiving module configured to receive media content;

a streamlet module configured to segment the media content and generate a plurality of sequential streamlets, each streamlet comprising a portion of the media content having a predetermined length of time;

an encoding module configured to encode each streamlet as a separate content file and generate a set of streamlets;

wherein the set of streamlets comprises a plurality of streamlets having identical time indices and each streamlet of the set of streamlets having a unique bitrate; and

wherein the encoding module comprises a master module configured to assign an encoding job to one of a plurality of host computing modules in response to an encoding job completion bid.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the encoding module is configured to encode multiple streamlets in parallel and generate streamlets having the predetermined length of time.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the encoding module is further configured to encode the streamlets in a time-selective manner so that the streamlets are processed successively at a regular time interval.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the encoding module is further configured to transmit the encoded streamlets at the regular time interval.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the predetermined length of time is in the range of between about 0.1 and 5 seconds.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the predetermined length of time is in the range of between about 1 and 3 seconds.

25. The system of claim 19, wherein the predetermined length of time is in the range of between about 1.5 and 2.5 seconds.

26. The system of claim 19, wherein the receiving module is configured to convert the media content to raw audio.

27. The system of claim 19, wherein the receiving module is configured to convert the media content to raw video.

28. The system of claim 19, wherein the streamlet module is configured to segment the content media into a plurality of sequential streamlets.

29. The system of claim 19, wherein each host computing module is configured to submit an encoding job completion bid based on a plurality of computing variables.

30. The system of claim 19, wherein the plurality of computing variables is selected from a group consisting of current encoding job completion percentage, average encoding job completion time, processor speed, and physical memory capacity

31. A method for multi-bitrate content streaming, the method comprising:

capturing media content;

segmenting the media content and generating a plurality of sequential streamlets; and

encoding each streamlet as a separate content file.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising segmenting the media content into a plurality of streamlets, each streamlet comprising a portion of the media content having a predetermined length of time.

33. The method of claim 31, further comprising generating a set of streamlets comprising a plurality of streamlets having identical time indices, and each streamlet of the set of streamlets having a unique bitrate.

34. The method of claim 31, further comprising encoding multiple streamlets in parallel and generating streamlets having a predetermined length of time.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising encoding the streamlets in a time-selective manner so that the streamlets are processed successively at a regular time interval.

36. The method of claim 34, further comprising transmitting the encoded streamlets at the regular time interval.

37. The method of claim 31, further comprising converting the media content to raw audio.

38. The method of claim 31, further comprising converting the media content to raw video.

39. The method of claim 31, further comprising segmenting the content media into a plurality of sequential streamlets.

40. The method of claim 31, further comprising assigning an encoding job to one of a plurality of host computing modules in response to an encoding job completion bid.

41. The method of claim 31, further comprising submitting an encoding job completion bid based on a plurality of computing variables.

42. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to carry out operations for multi-bitrate content streaming, the operations comprising:

capturing media content;

segmenting the media content and generating a plurality of sequential streamlets; and

encoding each streamlet as a separate content file.

43. The computer readable program of claim 42, wherein the operations further comprise segmenting the media content into a plurality of streamlets, each streamlet comprising a portion of the media content having a predetermined length of time.

44. The computer readable program of claim 42, wherein the operations further comprise generating a set of streamlets comprising a plurality of streamlets having identical time indices, and each streamlet of the set of streamlets having a unique bitrate.

45. The computer readable program of claim 42, wherein the operations further comprise encoding multiple streamlets in parallel and generating streamlets having a predetermined length of time.

46. The computer readable program of claim 45, wherein the operations further comprise encoding the streamlets in a time-selective manner so that the streamlets are processed successively at a regular time interval.

47. The computer readable program of claim 42, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting the encoded streamlets at the regular time interval.

48. An apparatus for multi-bitrate content streaming, the apparatus comprising:

means for capturing media content;

means for segmenting the media content and generating a plurality of sequential streamlets; and

means for encoding each streamlet as a separate content file.