Quality of Service for Distribution of Content to Network Devices

• US 20120173746A1
• Filed: 12/29/2010
• Published: 07/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Salinger, Jorge Daniel, Francisco, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 9,185,004 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/509 wherein the managed service relates to media content delivery, e.g. audio, video or TV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/55 Testing of service level quality, e.g. simulating service usage
• 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 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/756 adapting media to device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• 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 21/64322 IP

Abstract

A gateway device configured to receive IP video content may select and use transmission methods that maintain a certain quality of service for delivering the content. A transmission method may be selected based on a network to which the client device is connected. The gateway device may select a network through which the content is to be delivered depending on a variety of factors including bandwidth availability, client compatibility, quality of service provided and the like. A gateway device may further be configured to convert multicast transmissions to unicast, to provide dynamic storage of content for pre-positioning and other purposes and/or to provide other functions.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a gateway device, content from a provider, wherein the content is intended for a client device at a user location;

determining, by the gateway device, a protocol in which the content is formatted;

in response to determining that the content is not formatted according to Internet Protocol (IP);

re-encapsulating, by the gateway device, the content into one or more IP packets; and

transmitting the one or more IP packets from the gateway device to the client device at the user location through a first network at the user location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the one or more IP packets to the client device through the first network comprises using a time division multiple access resource reservation control protocol including allocating a time slot in a transmission stream between the gateway device and the client device for delivering the content.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the content received from the provider is a specified type of content; and

in response to determining that the content received from the content provider corresponds to the specified type of content, selecting a network for transmitting the received content to the client device based on quality of service, the selected network including one of the first network and a second network at the user location.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising using a first resource reservation control scheme for transmissions over the first network and a second resource reservation control scheme for transmission over the second network.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second network includes a user operated network and the second resource reservation control scheme includes reserving bandwidth in the second network for transmission of specified type of content.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising in response to determining that the received content does not correspond to the specified type of content, selecting the second network for transmission of the content to the client device, wherein the second network comprises a user operated network.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising using the same resource reservation control scheme for transmission over both the first and second networks.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein selecting the network includes:

determining whether the first network includes available bandwidth; and

in response to determining that the first network includes available bandwidth, selecting the first network.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

in response to determining that the first network does not include available bandwidth, determining whether the second network includes available bandwidth; and

in response to determining that the second network includes available bandwidth, selecting the second network, wherein the first and second networks are physically different.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining whether the second network includes available bandwidth includes determining whether a content transmission channel dedicated to the specified type of content of the second network includes available bandwidth.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the content is formatted according to a multicast protocol; and

in response to determining that the content is formatted according to the multicast protocol, converting the content to a unicast protocol format prior to transmitting the content to the client device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the gateway device stores the content in a storage device prior to receiving a request from the client device for the content.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the content includes one of:

advertisements, digital rights management keys and code images.

14. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

memory operatively coupled to the processor and storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause the apparatus to;

receive content from a content provider, wherein the content is intended for a client device at a user location having at least a first network and a second network, wherein the first network uses a first resource reservation control scheme and the second network uses a second resource reservation control scheme different from the first resource reservation control scheme;

determine a network to which the client device is connected; and

select a transmission method for delivering the content to the client device over the determined network based on a resource reservation control scheme of the determined network.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the determined network includes the first network and wherein the selected transmission method includes time division multiple access (TDMA).

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the determined network includes the second network and wherein the selected transmission method includes transmission of the content over a content transmission channel of the second network, wherein the content transmission channel is dedicated to transmitting content of a specified type and the content corresponds to the specified type.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the second network includes a plurality of channels, the plurality of channels comprising at least one channel not dedicated to transmission of content of the specified type.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, further including computer readable instructions that, when executed, further cause the apparatus to:

determine that the content is formatted according to a multicast protocol;

in response to determining that the content is formatted according to the multicast protocol, determine whether the client device is compatible with the multicast protocol;

in response to determining that the client device is incompatible with the multicast protocol, convert the content to a unicast protocol format; and

transmit the content to the client device in the unicast protocol format.

19. One or more non-transitory computer readable media storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause an apparatus to:

receive content, wherein the content is intended for a client device at a user location, the user location including a first network using a first resource reservation control scheme;

determine whether bandwidth is reserved for a content type corresponding to the received content; and

in response to determining that the first network has bandwidth reserved for the content type, transmitting the content to the client device over the first network using the reserved bandwidth.

20. The one or more computer readable media of claim 19, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed, further cause the apparatus to:

determine a priority of the content relative to one or more other content items stored in a transmission queue; and

store the content in the queue based on the determined priority.