HIGH BANDWIDTH STREAMING TO MEDIA PLAYER

• US 20120133731A1
• Filed: 11/29/2010
• Published: 05/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Ho, M. James, Ruffini, Michael P., Lin, Te Sheng
• Granted Patent: US 8,970,668 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/167 Synchronising or controlling image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/194 Transmission of image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26216 involving the channel capacity, e.g. network bandwidth admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a schedule or organising the servicing of application requests taking into account QoS H04L67/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand

Abstract

A method performed by one or more computing devices includes receiving, by a data center and from a user device via a public network connection, a selection of high-definition three-dimensional (HD3D) content and sending, by the data center and to the user device, a link to a content delivery system to provide the selected HD3D content. The method also includes receiving, by the content delivery system and from the user device, a streaming request for the selected HD3D content; reserving, by the content delivery system, bandwidth, for the selected HD3D content, within a managed network; and sending, by the content delivery system and to the user device, a streaming Internet protocol (IP) address for providing the selected HD3D content over the managed network.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a data center and from a user device via a public network connection, a selection of high-definition three-dimensional (HD3D) content;

sending, by the data center and to the user device, a link to a content delivery system to provide the selected HD3D content;

receiving, by the content delivery system and from the user device, a streaming request for the selected HD3D content;

reserving, by the content delivery system, bandwidth, for the selected HD3D content, within a managed network; and

sending, by the content delivery system and to the user device, a streaming Internet protocol (IP) address for providing the selected HD3D content over the managed network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the user device and via the streaming IP address, a request for the selected HD3D content; and

streaming, to the user device, the selected HD3D content.

3. The method of claim 2, where streaming the selected HD3D content includes streaming the selected content in a Multiview Video Coding (MVC) standard.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the user device via the public network connection, a request for a catalog of content available to a user of the user device; and

sending, to the user device, the catalog, where the catalog includes one or more titles of HD3D content available for selection by the user.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

setting up a streaming session, with a streaming device, to send the selected HD3D content to the user device.

6. The method of claim 1, where the selected HD3D content includes stereoscopic video with 1080p resolution with scanning at 60 frames per second.

7. The method of claim 1, where reserving bandwidth for the selected HD3D content includes reserving more than 15 megabits per second (Mbps).

8. The method of claim 2, where streaming the selected HD3D content includes streaming packets, including the selected HD3D content, with guaranteed quality of service (QoS).

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

authenticating a user, the user device, or an application residing on the user device prior to sending the link to the content delivery system to provide the selected HD3D content.

10. The method of claim 9, where authenticating the user, the user device, or the application includes at least one of:

receiving login information associated with the user, and comparing the login information with stored information to authenticate the user,

receiving device information associated with the user device, and comparing the device information with stored information to authenticate the user device, or

receiving application information associated with the application, and comparing the application information with stored information to authenticate the application.

11. The method of claim 1, where the user device is a one of:

a Blu-ray disc player;

a set-top box;

a digital television receiver;

a digital video recorder (DVR);

or

a personal computer.

12. A device, comprising:

a memory to store a plurality of instructions; and

a processor to execute instructions in the memory to;

receive, from a user device via a public network connection, a request for a catalog of content available to a user of the user device;

send the catalog to the user device, where the catalog includes one or more titles of high-definition three-dimensional (HD3D) content available for selection by the user;

receive, from the user device via the public network connection, a particular selection of HD3D content; and

send, to the user device via the public network connection, a link to a content delivery server to provide the selected HD3D content, where the content delivery server is connected to the user device via a managed network connection.

13. The device of claim 12, where the processor is further to:

send, to the user device via the public network connection, license information for the selected HD3D content.

14. The device of claim 13, where the selected HD3D content is encrypted video content, and where the license information includes a decryption key for the encrypted video content.

15. The device of claim 12, where the processor is further to:

authenticate a user, the user device, or an application residing on the user device prior to sending the link to the content delivery server to provide the selected HD3D content.

16. The device of claim 12, where the processor is further to:

send, to the user device, an application that enables the user device to present, to a user, information received from data center in an interactive format.

17. One or more devices, comprising:

a memory to store a plurality of instructions; and

one or more processors to execute instructions in the memory to;

send, to a data server, a catalog of content items available to users and a universal resource locator (URL) for a user device to retrieve a selected content item;

receive, from the user device and via the URL, a streaming request for the selected HD3D content item;

reserve bandwidth to provide the selected high-definition three-dimensional (HD3D) content item, via a managed network connection, to the user device;

send, to the user device, a streaming Internet protocol (IP) address for providing the selected HD3D content item over the managed network connection;

receive, from the user device and via the streaming IP address, a request for the selected HD3D content item; and

stream, to the user device, the selected HD3D content item.

18. The device of claim 17, where the one or more processors are further to:

set up a streaming session, with a streaming device, to send the selected HD3D content item to the user device.

19. The device of claim 17, where the one or more processors are further to:

designate the selected HD3D content item with guaranteed quality of service (QoS).

20. The device of claim 17, where the selected HD3D content item includes stereoscopic video with 1080p resolution with scanning at 60 frames per second.