MANAGING LINEAR MULTIMEDIA CONTENT DELIVERY

• US 20110022689A1
• Filed: 07/21/2009
• Published: 01/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chow, Lee M., Piepenbrink, David J., Sofos, James T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,154,331 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4679 Arrangements for the registration or de-registration of VLAN attribute values, e.g. VLAN identifiers, port VLAN membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• 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 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30

Abstract

Users are assigned to virtual groups. Virtual groups are associated with server assets. Achieving load-balancing during the delivery of linear multimedia content, for example, may be achieved through reassigning users to different virtual groups. Server assets can include server clusters that are assigned to the virtual groups. New hardware can be added to server assets without having to directly associate users to the new hardware.

Claims

1. A method of providing multimedia programs, the method comprising:

grouping server assets into virtual groups;

monitoring loading of the grouped server assets;

assigning a client device to one of the virtual groups based on a load parameter for the grouped server assets for the virtual group;

receiving a request from the client device to receive a multimedia program;

providing from a server asset to the client device a plurality of multimedia frames of the multimedia program, wherein the server asset is from the grouped server assets for the virtual group to which the client device is assigned;

directing the client device to a multicast replicator for receiving further frames of the multimedia program;

providing to the client device from the multicast replicator further portions of the multimedia program; and

responsive to a change in the monitored loading of the virtual groups, assigning the client device to a different virtual group.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the multimedia program includes linear content.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

incrementing a counter indicative of a number of client devices served by grouped server assets.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

altering which server assets are assigned to a virtual group without altering which client device is assigned to the virtual group.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

caching the plurality of multimedia frames at the server asset.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending to the client device an identifier for the server asset.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said sending is in response to a timer.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein said sending is in response to a bootup of the client device.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein said sending includes staggering the sending with respect to the sending of identifiers to a plurality of further client devices.

10. A system for distributing linear multimedia content to a plurality of users, the system comprising:

a plurality of physical server assets for distributing the linear multimedia content to a plurality of client devices associated with the plurality of users, wherein individual physical server assets of the plurality of physical server assets include a load capacity level;

a plurality of virtual groups individually associated with respective physical server assets of the plurality of physical server assets; and

a load balancer for assigning portions of the plurality of client devices to a virtual group of the plurality of virtual groups, wherein said assigning is based at least in part on load capacity levels for the physical server assets associated with the respective virtual groups.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the individual physical server assets include server clusters.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the load balancer is further for reassigning client devices based on a revised load capacity level for one or more of the plurality of physical server assets.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the load balancer is further for reassigning client devices in response to a technical failure of one or more of the physical server assets.

14. A computer readable media embedded with computer readable instructions for balancing workload between a plurality of server assets for distributing linear multimedia content, the instructions including instructions for:

assigning a plurality of users to a virtual group selected from a plurality of virtual groups, wherein said assigning is based at least in part on a load balance parameter associated with the virtual group; and

sending to a plurality of client devices associated with the assigned plurality of users an indication of a server asset associated with the virtual group.

15. The computer readable media of claim 14, further comprising instructions for:

assigning a portion of the plurality of server assets to the virtual group to result in the portion of the plurality of server assets distributing the linear multimedia content to a portion of the plurality of client devices.

16. The computer readable media of claim 14, wherein the server asset is a D-server.

17. The computer readable media of claim 14, further comprising instructions for:

receiving from a client device associated with one of the plurality of users a request for linear multimedia content; and

providing a unicast stream of a portion of the requested linear multimedia content from the server asset to the client device.

18. The computer readable media of claim 17, further comprising instructions for:

providing a multicast stream of a further portion of the linear multimedia content.

19. The computer readable media of claim 18, further comprising instructions for:

aligning the multicast stream and the unicast stream.

20. The computer readable media of claim 14, wherein said sending includes individually sending indications of the server asset in response to booting of individual client devices.

21. The computer readable media of claim 14, wherein said sending is in response to a timer.

22. The computer readable media of claim 14, further comprising instructions for:

monitoring an amount of requests for linear multimedia content for the plurality of server assets.

23. The computer readable media of claim 22 wherein said monitoring includes measuring respective traffic amounts for the plurality of server assets.

24. The computer readable media of claim 22, further comprising instructions for:

updating the indication of the server asset based at least in part on comparing the load balance parameter and the measured traffic amounts.