STREAM CONTROL FAILOVER UTILIZING AN ATTRIBUTE-DEPENDENT PROTECTION MECHANISM
First Claim
1. A method for managing the streaming of digital video content to multiple clients, the method comprising:
- identifying an attribute of a content element that is streamed to a client; and
selecting a protection mechanism for the content element as a function of the attribute, wherein the protection mechanism enables streaming of the content element to the client in the event of a resource failure.wherein the selected protection mechanism comprises;
providing the same digital video content to first and second stream servers in a logical group of stream servers;
storing the digital video content into random access memory (RAM) at both the first and second stream servers;
streaming the digital video content to a client from the first stream server but not the second stream server; and
switching to streaming the digital video content to the client from the second stream server instead of the first stream server after a failure is detected in the first stream server, the steaming including activating an interface of the second stream server that was not activated until after the failure in the first stream server was detected.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A technique for managing the streaming of digital video content to multiple clients involves identifying an attribute of a content element that is streamed to a client and selecting a protection mechanism for the content element as a function of the attribute, wherein the protection mechanism enables streaming of the content element to the clients in the event of a resource failure. In an example, the identified attribute is an indication of the popularity of the content element (e.g., as measured by the number of active streams), such that the protection mechanism is selected as a function of the popularity of the content element. In an embodiment, protection mechanisms that offer a higher level of protection are selected for the more popular content elements and protection mechanisms that offer a lower level of protection are selected for the less popular content elements.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for managing the streaming of digital video content to multiple clients, the method comprising:
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identifying an attribute of a content element that is streamed to a client; and selecting a protection mechanism for the content element as a function of the attribute, wherein the protection mechanism enables streaming of the content element to the client in the event of a resource failure. wherein the selected protection mechanism comprises; providing the same digital video content to first and second stream servers in a logical group of stream servers; storing the digital video content into random access memory (RAM) at both the first and second stream servers; streaming the digital video content to a client from the first stream server but not the second stream server; and switching to streaming the digital video content to the client from the second stream server instead of the first stream server after a failure is detected in the first stream server, the steaming including activating an interface of the second stream server that was not activated until after the failure in the first stream server was detected. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for managing the streaming of digital video content to multiple clients, the method comprising:
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identifying an attribute of a content element that is streamed to a client; and selecting a protection mechanism for the content element as a function of the attribute, wherein the protection mechanism enables streaming of the content element to the client in the event of a resource failure; wherein selecting the protection mechanism comprises; identifying the resource requirements of multiple protection mechanisms; establishing a fault recovery requirement for a content element; and selecting, for the content element, the protection mechanism with the lowest resource requirement that meets the fault recovery requirement for the content element. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification