Internet backbone servers with edge compensation

• US 20100094962A1
• Filed: 10/14/2009
• Published: 04/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Patentvc Limited
• Original Assignee: Patentvc Limited
• Inventors: Thieberger, Gil, Zuckerman, Gal
• Application Number:
  US12/579,375
• Publication Number:
  US 20100094962A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Internet backbone servers with edge compensation and a corresponding assembling device for obtaining erasure-coded fragments from at least one of the Internet backbone servers. Upon a fragment loss, the assembling device uses a fragment pull protocol to retrieve a substitute erasure-coded fragment from a nearby fractional-storage CDN server having low latency in response to the assembling device.

Claims

1. ) An apparatus comprising:

an assembling device configured to obtain erasure-coded fragments from at least one CDN server located close to or on the Internet backbone;

upon a fragment loss, the assembling device is further configured to use a fragment pull protocol to retrieve a substitute erasure-coded fragment from a nearby fractional-storage CDN server having low latency in responding to the assembling device.

2. ) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the CDN servers located close to or on the Internet backbone are fractional-storage CDN servers.

3. ) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the assembling device is located at the user premises.

4. ) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the assembling device is configured to use a fragment pull protocol to obtain the fragments from the at least one CDN server located close to or on the Internet backbone.

5. ) The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the erasure-coding is rateless-coding potentially resulting in fragments having a limitless redundancy factor.

6. ) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the fragments are generated from segments of streaming content, and the assembling device is further configured to obtain and retrieve the fragments approximately according to the segment presentation order.

7. ) The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the nearby fractional-storage CDN server is located at the edge of the Internet.

8. ) The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the assembling device is configured to obtain the erasure-coded fragments from the at least one CDN server using a fragment pull protocol for high latency.

9. ) The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the assembling device is configured to obtain at least 5 times more erasure-coded fragments from the at least one CDN server located close to or on the Internet backbone than from the nearby fractional-storage CDN server;

and the assembling device is configured to obtain the fragments from the at least one CDN server located close to or on the Internet backbone via a push protocol.

10. ) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the erasure-coded fragments are generated from segments of streaming content;

and wherein for lost fragments associated with segments designed for trick play, the assembling device pulls the substitute erasure-coded fragment from the nearby fractional-storage CDN server; and

for lost fragments associated with segments not designed for trick play, the assembling device pulls the substitute erasure-coded fragment from the CDN server located close to or on the Internet backbone.

11. ) An apparatus comprising:

an assembling device configured to receive erasure-coded fragments from at least one CDN server located close to or on the Internet backbone using a push protocol;

upon a fragment loss, the assembling device is configured to pull a substitute erasure-coded fragment from a nearby fractional-storage CDN server having low latency.

12. ) The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the nearby fractional-storage CDN server is located at the edge of the Internet, the CDN servers located close to or on the Internet backbone are fractional-storage CDN servers, and the quantity of the pushed fragments is at least 5 times larger than the quantity of the pulled fragments.

13. ) A streaming media delivery network, comprising:

at least one CDN server, located close to or on the Internet backbone, configured to provide to an assembling device a first set of erasure-coded fragments of streaming media; and

a plurality of fractional-storage CDN servers, located at the edges of the Internet, configured to provide to the assembling device a second set of erasure-coded fragments of the streaming media;

wherein the first set is at least 5 times larger than the second set, and the first and second sets comprise enough fragments to enable the assembling device to start playing the streaming media within a short period of time following a request.

14. ) The streaming media delivery network of claim 13, wherein the second set of fragments is provided in response to fragment pull protocol requests issued by the assembling device.

15. ) The streaming media delivery network of claim 14, wherein the erasure-coding is rateless-coding potentially resulting in fragments having a limitless redundancy factor, and the assembling device is located at the user premises.

16. ) The streaming media delivery network of claim 14, wherein the assembling device is located at the user premises, and the at least one CDN server located close to or on the Internet backbone are fractional-storage CDN servers.

17. ) The streaming media delivery network of claim 14, wherein the short period of time following a request is shorter than 15 seconds for a high-definition full-length movie.

18. ) The streaming media delivery network of claim 14, wherein the assembling device is configured to pull the second set of fragments from one or more of the nearby fractional-storage CDN servers upon a fragment loss.

19. ) The streaming media delivery network of claim 18, wherein the fragment loss comprises not receiving an expected fragment within a predefined period of time, and the erasure-coded fragments support source-selection diversity.

20. ) The streaming media delivery network of claim 14, wherein the erasure-coded fragments are generated from segments of the streaming media, some of the segments are designed for trick play, and the majority of the fragments provided by the edge servers are associated with the segments designed for trick play.