System and Method for Content Validation

• US 20100146040A1
• Filed: 12/10/2008
• Published: 06/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramakrishnan, Kadangode K., Gopalakrishnan, Vijay, Yu, Fang
• Granted Patent: US 8,108,544 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A method of obtaining content includes receiving a playfile. The playfile includes a chunk ID corresponding to a chunk of the content, a packet ID corresponding to a packet of the chunk, and a hash of the packet. The method further includes obtaining the chunk from a peer, determining a calculated hash for the packet, and discarding the chunk when the calculated hash does not match the hash in the playfile.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions to manipulate a processor, the plurality of instructions comprising:

instructions to receive a playfile, the playfile including;

a chunk identifier corresponding to a chunk of the content;

a packet identifier corresponding to a packet of the chunk; and

a hash of the packet;

instructions to obtain the chunk from a peer including receiving the packet;

instructions to determine a calculated hash for the packet; and

instructions to discard the chunk when the calculated hash does not match the hash in the playfile.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to discard further includes instructions to increment a corruption counter and discard the chunk when the corruption counter exceeds a threshold.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions to send a notification to a server when the calculated hash does not match the hash in the playfile.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the notification includes an identifier of the peer.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions to receive an identifier of the peer from a server.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the content includes a plurality of chunks and the playfile further includes plurality of chunk identifiers each corresponding to one of the plurality of chunks.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the playfile further includes a plurality of packet identifiers.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the plurality of packet identifiers includes a packet identifier corresponding to each of the plurality of chunks.

9. A set-top box comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive a playfile, the playfile including;

a chunk identifier corresponding to a chunk of the content;

a packet identifier corresponding to a packet of the chunk; and

a hash of the packet;

obtain the chunk from a peer including receiving the packet;

determine a calculated hash for the packet; and

discard the chunk when the calculated hash does not match the hash in the playfile.

10. A server comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive a request for content from a client, the content including a chunk;

identify a subset of packets of the chunk; and

provide a playfile to the client, the playfile including;

a chunk identifier corresponding to the chunk;

a packet identifier corresponding to a packet of the subset of packets; and

a hash of the packet.

11. The server of claim 10, wherein the content further includes a plurality of chunks and the playfile further includes plurality of chunk identifiers each corresponding to one of the plurality of chunks.

12. The server of claim 11, wherein the playfile further includes a plurality of packet identifiers.

13. The server of claim 12, wherein the plurality of packet identifiers includes a number of packet identifiers for each of the plurality of chunks.

14. The server of claim 13, wherein the number of packet identifiers is determined by a policy.

15. The server of claim 13, wherein the number of packet identifiers is determined by a type of the content, a type of the client, a type of the device, a resolution of the content, or any combination thereof.

16. The server of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to calculate the hash of the packet.

17. A method comprising:

receiving a notification from a first client, the notification indicating that the first client received a corrupt packet from a first peer;

updating a peer score for the first peer; and

marking the first peer as a poor quality peer when the peer score crosses a threshold.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the peer score indicates a number of bad packets received from the first peer.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the peer score indicates a number of clients receiving bad packets from the first peer.

20. A method comprising:

receiving a request from a client for an identifier corresponding to a peer having a chunk;

identifying the peer, the peer not having a peer score above a threshold; and

notifying the client of the identifier corresponding to the peer.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the peer score indicates a number of bad packets received from the peer.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the peer score indicates a number of clients receiving bad packets from the peer.