Fast retrieval and progressive retransmission of content

• US 20100095012A1
• Filed: 10/14/2009
• Published: 04/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xenogenic Development Limited Liability Company (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Patentvc Limited
• Inventors: Thieberger, Gil, Zuckerman, Gal
• Granted Patent: US 8,819,259 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• 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

Fast retrieval and progressive retransmission of content, including the steps of obtaining erasure-coded fragments by an assembling server from fractional-storage CDN servers; reconstructing a streaming content file from the obtained fragments; and streaming the reconstructed content or a transcoded version of the content by the assembling server to a client device. Wherein most of the fractional-storage CDN servers are located close to or on the Internet backbone, and streaming the reconstructed content takes at least an order of magnitude longer than obtaining the fragments and reconstructing the content.

Claims

1. ) A method comprising:

obtaining erasure-coded fragments by an assembling server from fractional-storage CDN servers;

reconstructing a streaming content file from the obtained fragments; and

streaming the reconstructed content or a transcoded version of the content by the assembling server to a client device;

wherein most of the fractional-storage CDN servers are located close to or on the Internet backbone, and streaming the reconstructed content takes at least an order of magnitude longer than obtaining the fragments and reconstructing the content.

2. ) The method of claim 1, wherein the content file is a large multimedia file, and obtaining the fragments comprises obtaining the fragments using a fragment pull protocol over high bandwidth Internet transit or Internet backbone connections.

3. ) The method of claim 1, wherein the content file is a large multimedia file, and the steps of obtaining the fragments and reconstructing the content are completed within less than 15 seconds.

4. ) The method of claim 1, further comprising the client device interacting with the assembling server as if the assembling server had stored the content file locally;

and the assembling server converting the interactions with the client device into corresponding interactions with the fractional-storage CDN servers.

5. ) The method of claim 1, wherein the erasure-coding is rateless-coding potentially resulting in fragments having a limitless redundancy factor.

6. ) An apparatus comprising:

an assembling server configured to obtain erasure-coded fragments from fractional-storage CDN servers located close to or on the Internet backbone;

the assembling server is further configured to reconstruct a content from the obtained fragments and to stream the reconstructed content or a transcoded version of the content to a client device, wherein the amount of time that passes between obtaining the first fragment associated with the content and having the reconstructed content is at least an order of magnitude shorter than the shortest amount of time it takes to stream the reconstructed content to the client device.

7. ) The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the assembling server is further configured to utilize a fragment pull protocol over high bandwidth Internet transit or over Internet backbone connections to obtain the fragments.

8. ) The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the erasure-coded fragments support source-selection diversity, and the assembling server is located at or close to the edge of the Internet.

9. ) The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the assembling server is located at a juncture of an Internet transit network and a last mile network coupled to the client device.

10. ) The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the content is a multimedia content, the fragments are obtained via a high bandwidth connection having a minimum size of several Giga-bits-per-second, and the assembling server has sufficient computational capabilities to reconstruct the content within a short period of time.

11. ) The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the computational capabilities of the assembling server are sufficient to reconstruct a Giga-Byte of content in no more than several seconds, and the assembling server is further configured to utilize a fragment pull protocol to obtain the fragments.

12. ) The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the erasure-coding is rateless-coding potentially resulting in fragments having a limitless redundancy factor.

13. ) A system comprising:

fractional-storage CDN servers located close to or on the Internet backbone; and

assembling servers located at or close to the edges of the Internet and spread over a wide area;

the assembling servers are configured to obtain erasure-coded fragments associated with content files from the CDN servers, reconstruct the contents from fragments comprising the obtained fragments, and stream the contents to user-premises client devices spread over a wide area;

wherein the average available bandwidth between an assembling server and a CDN server is at least 20 times greater than the average available bandwidth between an assembling server and a client device.

14. ) The system of claim 13, wherein the assembling servers communicate with the fractional-storage CDN servers via high bandwidth connections having a minimum size of several Giga-bits-per-second.

15. ) The system of claim 14, wherein the assembling servers are further configured to utilize a fragment pull protocol to obtain the fragments.

16. ) The system of claim 14, wherein the assembling servers are located at one or more of the following locations:

at the edge of the Internet, close to the edge of the Internet, or at a juncture of an Internet transit network and a last mile network coupled to the client devices.

17. ) The system of claim 13, wherein the amount of time that passes between obtaining the first fragment associated with a content file and having the reconstructed content is significantly shorter than the shortest amount of time it takes to stream the reconstructed content to an average client device;

and the assembling server is further configured to utilize a fragment pull protocol to obtain the fragments.

18. ) The system of claim 17, wherein the assembling servers are located at one or more of the following locations:

at the edge of the Internet, close to the edge of the Internet, or at a juncture of an Internet transit network and a last mile network coupled to the client devices.

19. ) The system of claim 13, wherein the erasure-coding is rateless-coding potentially resulting in fragments having a limitless redundancy factor.

20. ) The system of claim 13, wherein the assembling servers are configured to stream the contents to nearby client devices.