METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REDUCING DELAY OF MEDIA PLAYING

• US 20090164656A1
• Filed: 02/26/2009
• Published: 06/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Guan, Hongguang
• Granted Patent: US 8,055,793 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 Discovery through centralising entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1065 Discovery involving distributed pre-established resource-based relationships among peers, e.g. based on distributed hash tables [DHT] pre-configuration of logical or physical connections H04L67/1053
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1068 Discovery involving direct consultation or announcement among potential requesting and potential source peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104

Abstract

A method for reducing delay of playing media includes: a user node obtaining information on a list of nodes that can provide a desired program content; selects a best node among the nodes that can provide the program content corresponding to one or more time segments, wherein the program content is to be played in more than one time segment and the best node is closest to the user node among all the nodes; creating a connection with the selected best node; receiving media stream data of the program content from the best node; and playing the media stream data. An apparatus for reducing delay of media playing herein includes: a node information obtaining module, a best node selecting module, a connection creating module, and a playing module.

Claims

1. A method for reducing delay of media playing, comprising:

obtaining, by a user node, information on a list of nodes that can provide a desired program content, wherein the program content is to be played in one or more time segments;

for one or more time segments of the desired program content, selecting a best node among the nodes that can provide the desired program content, wherein the best node is closest to the user node among the nodes that can provide the desired program content; and

creating a connection with the best node selected on each time segment, receiving media stream data of the program content from the best node, and playing the media stream data.

2. The method for reducing delay of media playing according to claim 1, wherein the process of the user node obtaining the information on the list of nodes that can provide the desired program content comprises:

obtaining, by the user node, the information on the list of the nodes that can provide the desired program content through a Distributed Hash Table (DHT) network or central server.

3. The method for reducing delay of media playing according to claim 1, further comprising:

measuring, by the user node, a distance between the user node and each of the nodes that can provide the program content corresponding to each time segment by measuring round-trip time, selecting two nodes closest to the user node, using the closest node as an active node on each time segment and using the secondarily closest node as a standby node on each time segment, and storing the active node and the standby node locally.

4. The method for reducing delay of media playing according to claim 1, further comprising:

calculating, by the user node, a distance between the user node and each of the nodes that can provide the program content corresponding to each time segment through number of hops of a route, selecting two nodes with a least and a secondarily least number of hops of the route away from the user node, using the node with the least number of hops as an active node and using the node with the secondarily least number of hops as a standby node on each time segment, and storing the active node and standby node locally.

5. The method for reducing delay of media playing according to claim 3, further comprising:

creating, by the user node, a connection with each active node stored locally; and

creating a connection with each standby node corresponding to the active node when the connection between the user node and the active node fails.

6. The method for reducing delay of media playing according to claim 5, further comprising:

receiving, by the user node, the media stream data from the active node or standby node which is already connected with the user node and corresponds to a reselected time segment after the user node reselects a time segment among more than one time segment of the program content.

7. The method for reducing delay of media playing according to claim 4, further comprising:

creating, by the user node, a connection with each active node stored locally; and

creating a connection with each standby node corresponding to the active node when the connection between the user node and the active node fails.

8. The method for reducing delay of media playing according to claim 7, further comprising:

receiving, by the user node, the media stream data from the active node or standby node which is already connected with the user node and corresponds to a reselected time segment after the user node reselects a time segment among more than one time segment of the program content.

9. The method for reducing delay of media playing according to claim 1, wherein the process of selecting a best node among the nodes that can provide the desired program content for one or more time segments of the desired program content, comprises:

for each time segment of the desired program content, selecting a best node among the nodes that can provide the desired program content corresponding to each time segment.

10. An apparatus for reducing delay of media playing, comprising:

a node information obtaining module, adapted to obtain information on a list of nodes that can provide a program content desired by a user node, wherein the program content is to be played in one or more time segment;

a best node selecting module, adapted to select a best node for one or more time segments among the nodes that can provide the program content, wherein the best node is closest to the best node selecting module among the nodes that can provide the desired program content;

a connection creating module, adapted to create a connection with the selected best node; and

a playing module, adapted to receive media stream data of the program content from the best node, and play the media stream data.

11. The apparatus for reducing delay of media playing according to claim 10, wherein:

the node information obtaining module obtains the information on the list of the nodes that can provide the desired program content through a Distributed Hash Table (DHT) network or central server.

12. The apparatus for reducing delay of media playing according to claim 10, wherein:

the best node selecting module is further adapted to;

select a secondarily best node among the nodes that can provide the program content corresponding to each time segment, wherein the secondarily best node is secondarily closest to the best node selecting module among the nodes that can provide the program content;

use the best node as an active node on each time segment and use the secondarily best node as a standby node on each time segment, and store the active node and the standby node locally.

13. The apparatus for reducing delay of media playing according to claim 12, wherein:

the connection creating module is adapted to;

create a connection with each active node stored locally; and

create a connection with the standby node corresponding to the active node when the connection with the active node fails.

14. The apparatus for reducing delay of media playing according to claim 10, wherein:

the best node selecting module is further adapted to;

select a secondarily best node among the nodes that can provide the program content corresponding to each time segment, wherein the secondarily best node is secondarily closest to the best node selecting module among the nodes that can provide the program content;

use the best node as an active node on each time segment and use the secondarily best node as a standby node on each time segment, and store the active node and the standby node locally.

15. The apparatus for reducing delay of media playing according to claim 14, wherein:

the connection creating module is adapted to;

create a connection with each active node stored locally; and

create a connection with the standby node corresponding to the active node when the connection with the active node fails.

16. An apparatus for reducing delay of media playing, comprising:

a node information obtaining module, adapted to obtain information on a list of nodes that can provide a program content desired by a user node;

a best node selecting module, adapted to select a best node among all nodes that can provide the program content corresponding to each time segment, where the program content is played in more than one time segment and the best node is closest to the best node selecting module among all the nodes;

a connection creating module, adapted to create a connection with the selected best node; and

a playing module, adapted to receive media stream data of the program content from the best node, and play the media stream data.