Networked Transmission System And Method For Stream Data

• US 20090172179A1
• Filed: 05/13/2008
• Published: 07/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Inventors: Yu, Yun-Shuai, Lin, Chung-Shiang, Shieh, Ce-Kuan, Miao, Yu-Ben
• Granted Patent: US 8,176,192 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1046 Joining mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1051 Group master selection mechanisms

Abstract

Disclosed is a networked transmission system and method for stream data. The system comprises a network, a streaming server and an ordered series of a first up to n-th cooperative-sharing groups. There is a cooperative relationship among all users'"'"' terminals in a cooperative-sharing group. The streaming server provides a plurality of programs with stream data, each program being divided into one or more audio/video clips by a time-slot unit. The streaming server transmits the one or more audio/video clips to the leader node of the first cooperative-sharing groups. The leader node of each cooperative-sharing group transmits the currently received audio/video clip to the users'"'"' terminals within the same cooperative-sharing group, and passes the received audio/video clip to the leader node of the next cooperative-sharing group after one time slot.

Claims

1. A networked transmission system for stream data, comprising:

a network;

a streaming server, for providing a plurality of stream data programs, with each stream data program being divided into a plurality of stream data segments according to a predefined time length;

an ordered sequence of n cooperative-sharing groups, numbered from 1^st to n-th, n being an integer, each of said n cooperative-sharing groups being formed by a plurality of user terminals, at least a user terminal of said plurality of user terminals being leader node of said cooperative-sharing group, and all the user terminals within each cooperative-sharing group forming a multicasting relation;

where said streaming server transmitting said plurality of stream data segments, one by one, through said network to said leader node of said first cooperative-sharing group, said leader node of each of said cooperative-sharing group multicasting each current received stream data segment to all the user terminals within the same cooperative-sharing group, and relaying said current received stream data segment to the leader node of the next cooperative-sharing group after said predefined time length.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each operation that a user terminal executes is one of operations including joining said system, changing playing progress, and departing from said system.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said streaming server has a memory space for recording the network address of each leader node of each of said n cooperative-sharing groups.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the speed of said streaming server transmitting stream data segment is greater than or equal to the speed of program playing.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said streaming server has a buffer for storing the original stream data of said plurality of stream data programs.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the leader node of each of said n cooperative-sharing groups has a buffer for storing the stream data segments of two periods of said time length, and each user terminal of non-leader nodes has a buffer for storing the stream data segment of a period of said time length.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said streaming server takes said time length as a unit to define said ordered sequence of said n cooperative-sharing groups, numbered 1^st to n-th.

8. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein when a user terminal is joining said system, said streaming server responds to said user terminals with the network address of a leader node of the cooperative-sharing group which said user terminal is joining.

9. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein when a user terminal changes playing progress, said streaming server receives a changing request from said user terminal and conduct a search and responses to said user terminal for the switching to another cooperative-sharing group.

10. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein when a user terminal departs from said system, and if said user terminal is a leader node of one of said n cooperative-sharing groups, said streaming server selects another user terminal within the original cooperative-sharing group that said departing user terminal belongs to as a new leader node.

11. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein when a user terminal joins said system, changes playing progress, or departs from and re-joins said system, if said user terminal joins an empty cooperative-sharing group, said streaming server directly serves said user terminal and said user terminal becomes the leader node of said empty cooperative-sharing group.

12. A networked transmission method for stream data, applicable to a networked transmission system, said method comprising:

defining a time length TS, and taking said time length as a unit to divide each of a plurality of stream data programs into a plurality of stream data segments;

taking said time length as a unit to define an ordered sequence of n cooperative-sharing groups, numbered 1^st to n-th, each cooperative-sharing group being formed by a plurality of user terminals;

selecting at least a user terminal from each of said n cooperative-sharing groups as a leader node;

during each period of said time length, transmitting a stream data segment to the leader node of said first cooperative-sharing group; and

the leader node of each of said n cooperative-sharing groups multicasting each current received stream data segment to other user terminals of the same cooperative-sharing group, and after a period of said time length, said leader node relaying said current received stream data segment to the leader node of next cooperative-sharing group.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, said method further includes the operations of a user terminal joining said system, a user terminal changing playing progress, and a user terminal departing from said system, or any combinations of the above.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein said operation of a user terminal joining said system further includes:

defining the initial time of the earliest user terminal joining to view a stream data program as T_ini; and

assigning said user terminal and subsequent user terminals joining said system to the [(T−

T_ini)/TS]+1 cooperative-sharing group, where [ ] is the Gaussian integer, and T is the joining time at which each said subsequent user terminal joins to view said stream data program.

15. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein said operation of a user terminal changing playing progress further includes:

said user terminal transmitting a new time T_new of playing progress for an interesting data stream segment to a streaming server through an inquiry message;

said streaming server computing which cooperative-sharing group currently multicasting the stream data segment said T_new belonging to, and returning the network address of the leader node of said cooperative-sharing group to said user terminal;

said user terminal informing its parent node in original cooperative-sharing group of switching to another cooperative-sharing group; and

said user terminal sending a join message to the leader node of said cooperative-sharing group to be switched to.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein when said user terminal is connected to at least a child node, said user terminal informs said at least a child node of said switching, and asks each of said child node to search for another user terminal in the original cooperative-sharing group as the parent node.

17. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein when said user terminal is a leader node, said user terminal inform said streaming server to select another leader node.

18. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein when said user terminal changes playing progress and switches to an empty cooperative-sharing group, said streaming server directly serves said user terminal and selects said user terminal as the leader node of said empty cooperative-sharing group.

19. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein said operation of a user terminal departing from said system further includes:

checking whether said departing user terminal being a leader node;

if so, selecting a new leader node and informing all child nodes of said departing user terminal to search for another parent node within the original cooperative-sharing group of said departing user terminal; and

otherwise, informing the parent node of the departure of said departing user terminal to its parent node and child nodes of said original cooperative-sharing group.

20. The method as claimed in claim 19, wherein when said departing user terminal is not a leader node, further includes the steps of said parent node stopping serving said departing user terminal and said child nodes searching for other parent nodes.