System, method and computer readable medium for providing redundancy in a media delivery system

• US 20090228933A1
• Filed: 03/05/2008
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Wallace, Robert, Asbun, Eduardo
• Granted Patent: US 7,975,166 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/63
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2007 using redundant communication media
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2035 without idle spare hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2041 with more than one idle spare processing component
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/32 Arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations, e.g. malfunction or breakdown of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/22 using redundant apparatus to increase reliability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/102 using shared medium, e.g. bus or ring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/206 Real Time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/557 Error correction, e.g. fault recovery or fault tolerance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26208 the scheduling operation being performed under constraints
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/442 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed, the storage space available from the internal hard disk arrangements for monitoring broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/29; arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information H04H60/35; monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; monitoring in wireless networks H04W24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6375 for requesting retransmission , e.g. of data packets lost or corrupted during transmission from serverARQ protocols H04L1/18; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64723 Monitoring of network processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of network load traffic related reporting in data switching networks H04L43/062
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6473 Monitoring network processes errors for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40

Abstract

In a digital video system, high availability distribution is provided using spare modules such as an integrated receiver decoder, multimedia transcoder and streaming module in support of the primary modules. The primary modules multicast status messages which are monitored by the spare modules. When failure of a primary module is detected, the spare module takes over the role of the failed module, for example by joining the same multicast groups as the failed module and taking over processing of the streams of the failed module. Multiple redundancy schemes are described.

Claims

1. A media delivery system comprising:

at least one primary module; and

at least one spare module that;

monitors said at least one primary module;

upon detection of failure of said least one primary module, performs a function of a failed primary module.

2. The media delivery system according to claim 1 wherein said at least one primary module and said at least one spare module comprise at least one multimedia transcoder.

3. The media delivery system according to claim 2 wherein said at least one primary module provides a status message and wherein said at least one spare module determines a status of said at least one primary module from said status message.

4. The media delivery system according to claim 3 wherein said at least one spare module determines a failure of said at least one primary module if greater than a threshold number of status messages are not received from said at least one primary module.

5. The media delivery system according to claim 3 wherein said at least one primary module multicasts said status message.

6. The media delivery system according to claim 3 wherein said at least one spare module determines from said status message one or more multicast groups from which said failed primary module is receiving one or more input streams.

7. The media delivery system according to claim 6 wherein upon detection of failure of said failed primary module, said spare module joins said one or more multicast groups.

8. The media delivery system according to claim 3 wherein said at least one spare module determines from said status message one or more multicast groups to which a failed primary module is sending processed streams.

9. The media delivery system according to claim 8 wherein upon detection of failure of said failed primary module, said spare module joins said one or more multicast groups.

10. The media delivery system according to claim 3 wherein said status message is provided at a regular period between 0.1 and 10.0 seconds.

11. The media delivery system according to claim 1 wherein said at least one primary module and said at least one spare module comprise at least one streaming module.

12. The media delivery system according to claim 11 wherein said at least one primary module provides a SAP announcement providing status information to said at least one spare module and wherein said at least one spare module determines a status of said at least one primary module from said SAP announcement.

13. The media delivery system according to claim 12 wherein each primary module monitors said SAP announcement and wherein each primary module and each spare module share a function of a failed primary module.

14. The media delivery system according to claim 1 comprising a digital video system.

15. A digital video system comprising:

at least one primary upstream module; and

at least one spare upstream module;

wherein said at least one spare upstream module duplicates said at least one primary upstream module.

16. The digital video system according to claim 15 further comprising at least one downstream module that:

receives data from said at least one primary upstream module;

upon detection of failure of said at least one upstream module, connects to said at least one spare upstream module.

17. The digital video system according to claim 16 wherein said at least one primary upstream module multicasts to said at least one downstream module.

18. The digital video system according to claim 16 wherein said at least one primary module and said at least one spare module comprises an integrated receiver decoder.

19. A method for switching a redundant device to an active state comprising:

in said redundant device, receiving multicast status messages from one or more active devices;

in said redundant device, determining a health of said one or more active devices from said status messages; and

upon determining that a health of said one or more active devices is unhealthy, switching said redundant device to perform a function of an unhealthy device.

20. A method of providing redundancy in a media delivery system comprising:

providing a primary module;

providing a spare module in a monitoring state;

monitoring performance of said primary module using said spare module;

detecting failure of said primary module; and

switching said spare module from said monitoring state to perform a role of said primary module.

21. The method according to claim 20 further comprising multicasting status messages from said primary module, said status messages indicating a health of said primary module.

22. The method according to claim 21 wherein monitoring performance of said primary module comprises receiving said status messages from said primary module.

23. The method according to claim 22 further comprising determining from said multicast status messages one or more multicast groups to which said primary module belongs and wherein switching said spare module from said monitoring state to perform a role of said primary module comprises joining said spare module to said one or more multicast groups.

24. A computer readable medium comprising instructions for:

receiving periodic status messages from one or more primary modules, said status messages indicating a function of said one or more primary modules;

determining an absence of said periodic status messages from a failed primary module of said one or more primary modules;

performing a function of said failed primary module.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 24 further comprising instructions for:

maintaining an association between said one or primary modules and one or more respective processing streams;

determining the processing streams of said failed primary module; and

processing said streams.