ADAPTIVE FILE DELIVERY SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20090164603A1
• Filed: 02/27/2009
• Published: 06/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Opanga Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Mediacast Incorporated
• Inventors: Moinzadeh, Kamiya, Harrang, Jeffrey P., Gibbons, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,589,585 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0002 by adapting the transmission rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0038 Blind format detection for detection of modulation format H04L27/0012
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1671 the supervisory signal being transmitted together with control information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/19 at layers above the network layer network arrangements for networked applications for scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/04 Error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/22 Negotiating communication rate

Abstract

An adaptive file delivery system and method transmits a data file, such as an audio-video file, over a network or collection of networks in segments, each segment transmitted during a different time period. Each time period has a transmission portion to transmit its associated file segment and a wait portion in which no further interaction with the network occurs regarding the transmitted segment. In some implementations, the duration of the transmission portion of each time period is sufficient to reach a steady-state throughput condition, which allows the traffic load status of the network or networks to be determined from rate measurements of file segment transmissions. The duration of the wait portion of each time period is at least long enough to limit the average rate of file segment transmission to adapt to network traffic load variations while causing the entire file to be delivered in a predetermined delivery deadline.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

sending a portion of a file made up of a plurality of file segments from a sending system to a receiving system, the sending the portion of the file including sending the file segments by a plurality of transmissions spaced out in time with a variable wait period occurring after the transmission of each of the plurality of file segments;

determining an actual transfer rate that a selected one of the plurality of file segments was sent from the sending system to the receiving system; and

determining the variable wait period based in part on the actual transfer rate determined for the selected file segment transmission.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the variable wait period is determined for each of the plurality of file segments following the sending of a first of the plurality of file segments from the sending system to the receiving system.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the variable wait period for a particular one of the plurality of file segments is determined based in part on the actual transfer rate determined for the file segment transmission of a preceding one of the plurality of file segments.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the selected file segment is a first of the plurality of file segments.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the actual transfer rate is determined for each of the plurality of file segments sent from the sending system to the receiving system.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the variable wait period is determined after each of the plurality of file segments based on the actual transfer rate of a preceding file segment.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the variable wait period is based in part on a measure of network congestion.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of file segments are substantially equal in size.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of file segments are different in size.

10. A method for sending a data file made up of a plurality of file segments from a sending system to a receiving system via a communications network, the method comprising:

sending the plurality of file segments from the sending system to the receiving system via the communications network with the transmission of each of the plurality of file segments spaced out in time with a wait period occurring after the transmission of each of the plurality of file segments;

sensing network congestion on the communications network; and

adjusting the wait period based on the sensed network congestion wherein the wait period is increased if the sensed congestion increases.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein sensing congestion comprises:

determining an actual transfer rate that a selected one of the plurality of file segments was sent from the sending system to the receiving system; and

determining the wait period based in part on the actual transfer rate determined for the file segment transmission.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein sensing congestion comprises:

determining a maximum network transfer rate for the communications network;

determining an actual transfer rate that a selected one of the plurality of file segments was sent from the sending system to the receiving system; and

determining the wait period based in part on the maximum network transfer rate and in part on the actual transfer rate determined for the file segment transmission.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein sending the plurality of file segments comprises sending the plurality of file segments spaced out in time with the wait period initially based on a maximum network transfer rate for the communications network.

14. A method comprising:

sending a portion of a file made up of a plurality of file segments from a sending system to a receiving system, the sending the portion of the file including sending the file segments one at a time by a plurality of transmissions with a different one of a plurality of wait periods occurring after each transmission;

for each file segment transmission, determining an actual transfer rate that the file segment was sent from the sending system to the receiving system; and

for each file segment transmission having a previous file segment transmission, determining size of the file segment to be sent in the file segment transmission based in part by the actual transfer rate of the previous file segment transmission.

15. A system to transmit a data file made up of a plurality of file segments to a receiving computing system, comprising:

a data storage element configured to store the data file to be transmitted to the receiving computing system;

a network interface coupled to a sending computing system and configured to transmit the plurality of data file segments to the receiving system via a communications network;

a network interface controller configured to control transmission of the plurality of file segments to the receiving system via the network interface, the network interface controller receiving an indication of an actual transfer rate of ones of the plurality of file segments and determining a wait period between transmission of individual ones of the plurality of file segments based in part on the actual transfer rate.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the data storage element is a portion of the sending computing system.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein ones of the plurality of file segments include time data indicative of a time of transmission from the sending computing system to the receiving computing system, and the indication of the actual transfer rate of the ones of the plurality of file segments is received by the network interface controller in acknowledgement messages received from the receiving computing system.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the network interface controller is initially configured to determine the wait period based on a maximum network transfer rate for the communications network.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the network interface controller is configured to increase the wait period if network congestion on the communications network increases.