Proxy-driven content rate selection for streaming media servers

• US 20090089447A1
• Filed: 08/19/2008
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Eunyoung, Calin, Doru, Rege, Kiran M., Balachandran, Krishna
• Granted Patent: US 8,812,712 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

Methods for proxy-driven content rate selection for streaming media servers are provided. In one method, one or more maximum transmission rate parameters from a network controller are stored at a proxy server in response to a receiver report message from the client. A target rate for the media session is generated based on the stored maximum transmission rate parameters, and the target rate is transmitted to a media server in a proxy-to-server feedback message. The media server selects the content rate from among a plurality of supported content rates in response to the proxy-to-server feedback message from the proxy server, and streams streaming multimedia frames to the client at the selected content rate.

Claims

1. A method for dynamically setting a content rate of a media session for a client in a network, the method comprising:

storing, at a proxy server in response to a receiver report message from the client, one or more maximum transmission rate parameters received from a network controller;

generating a target rate for the media session based on the stored maximum transmission rate parameters; and

transmitting the target rate to a media server to dynamically set the content rate for the media session.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the proxy server, a first receiver report message from the client; and

initializing a feedback counter value in response to the received first receiver report message.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving a maximum transmission rate parameter from a network controller;

storing the maximum transmission rate parameter as one of the one or more maximum transmission rate parameters;

incrementing the feedback counter value; and

comparing the incremented feedback counter value to a counter threshold.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the generating step generates the target rate for the media session based on the stored one or more maximum transmission rate parameters if the counter value is greater than or equal to the counter threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forwarding the receiver report message to the media server.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

resetting the feedback counter value; and

deleting the stored one or more maximum transmission rate parameters.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

recording, at the proxy server prior to the forwarding step, at least a portion of the receiver report message from the client.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the target rate is an average of the one or more stored maximum transmission rate parameters from the network controller.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the target rate is a weighted average of the one or more stored maximum transmission rate parameters from the network controller.

10. A method for dynamically setting a content rate of a media session for a client in a network, the method comprising:

selecting, at a media server, a content rate from among a plurality of supported content rates in response to a first proxy-to-server feedback message from a proxy server, the selected content rate being less than or equal to a first target rate parameter derived from a first target rate included in the first proxy-to-server feedback message from the proxy server; and

streaming multimedia frames from the media server to the client at the selected content rate.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

calculating the first target rate parameter based on the first target rate and an aggression factor.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first target rate parameter

is calculated according to the following equation:

(1+β

)*R_T;

wherein

R_T is the first target rate and β

is the aggression factor.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving a second proxy-to-server feedback message from the proxy server;

determining whether to update the content rate for the media session based on a second target rate included in the second proxy-to-server feedback message and a counter value; and

selectively updating the content rate for the media session based on the determining step.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the determining step further comprises:

generating a second target rate parameter based on the second target rate;

identifying an updated content rate based on the second target rate parameter; and

wherein

the selectively updating step updates the content rate for the media session if the updated content rate is different from the selected content rate and the counter value is greater than the first threshold value.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the selectively updating step further comprises:

setting the content rate for the media session equal to the updated content rate if the updated content rate is different from the selected content rate and the counter value is greater than the first threshold value.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

comparing, at the media server, a buffer space parameter value with a first threshold, the buffer space parameter value being included in a receiver report message from the client and being indicative of an amount of available buffer space at the client; and

adjusting a rate of multimedia frame transmission to the client based on the comparing step.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first threshold value is a minimum threshold value, the adjusting step further comprising:

reducing the rate of multimedia frame transmission to the client if the buffer space parameter value is less than the minimum threshold value.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the first threshold value is a maximum threshold value, the adjusting step further comprising:

increasing the rate of multimedia frame transmission to the client if the buffer space parameter value is greater than the maximum threshold value.

19. A method for dynamically setting a content rate of a multimedia session for a client in a network, the method comprising:

storing, at a proxy server in response to a receiver report message from the client, one or more maximum transmission rate parameters received from a network controller;

generating a target rate for the media session based on the stored maximum transmission rate parameters; and

transmitting the target rate to a media server in a proxy-to-server feedback message;

selecting, at the media server, the content rate from among a plurality of supported content rates in response to the proxy-to-server feedback message from the proxy server, the selected content rate being less than or equal to a target rate parameter derived from the target rate included in the proxy-to-server feedback message from the proxy server; and

streaming multimedia frames from the media server to the client at the selected content rate.