System and Method for Dynamically Adapting Network Delivery Modes of Content

• US 20120317235A1
• Filed: 06/09/2011
• Published: 12/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2011
• 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: Nguyen, Han Q., Maloo, Sunil, Nortz, Douglas M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,137,202 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/15 in relation to multipoint traffic arrangements for broadcast or multicast in data networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/29 using a combination of thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5069 for group communication, multicast communication or broadcast communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2408 Monitoring of the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. client requests monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26291 for providing content or additional data updates, e.g. updating software modules, stored at the client deployment, distribution, installation, update of software G06F8/65; error detection or correction during software upgrading G06F11/1433; arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/25
• 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 21/6375 for requesting retransmission , e.g. of data packets lost or corrupted during transmission from serverARQ protocols H04L1/18; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6402 Address allocation for clients address allocation in data networks H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6408 Unicasting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

A content distribution network includes a first server in communication with an anycast server that provides content via a unicast signal, and with a multicast server that provides the content via a multicast signal. The first server is configured to receive a list of source addresses associated with the content, and to provide a metadata file including an anycast Internet protocol address of the anycast server from the list of source addresses as an Internet protocol address of the content in response to a first request for the content. When the number of client devices requesting the content exceeds a first threshold, the first server receives an updated list of sources including a multicast Internet protocol address of a multicast server, and provides the multicast Internet protocol address of the multicast server as the Internet protocol address of the content in the metadata file.

Claims

1. A content distribution network comprising:

a first server in communication with an anycast server that provides content via a unicast signal, and with a multicast server that provides the content via a multicast signal, the first server configured to;

receive a list of source addresses associated with the content;

provide a metadata file including an anycast Internet protocol address of the anycast server from the list of source addresses as an Internet protocol address of the content in response to a first request for the content;

monitor a number of client devices requesting the content; and

when the number of client devices requesting the content exceeds a first threshold, receive an updated list of sources including a multicast Internet protocol address of a multicast server, and provide the multicast Internet protocol address of the multicast server as the Internet protocol address of the content in the metadata file.

2. The content distribution network of claim 1, wherein the first server is further configured to:

when the number of client devices requesting the content has fallen below the second threshold, disable the multicast server, receive a next updated list of sources with the multicast Internet protocol address of the multicast server being removed from the next updated list of sources to the second server, and provide the metadata file with the next updated list of sources in response to a second request.

3. The content distribution network of claim 1, further comprising:

a second server in communication with the first server, the second server configured to provide the list of sources and the updated list of sources to the first server.

4. The content distribution network of claim 3, wherein the second server is further configured to include the anycast Internet protocol address as a source address for error recovery in the updated list of sources.

5. The content distribution network of claim 3, wherein the second server is further configured to allocate a multicast channel of the multicast server for delivery of the content when the number of client devices requesting the content has exceeded the first threshold, and to de-allocating the multicast channel for delivery of the content when the number of client devices requesting the content has fallen below the second threshold.

6. The content distribution network of claim 3, wherein the second server is further configured to include an Internet protocol address of a peer device as a source address for error recovery in the updated list of sources.

7. The content distribution network of claim 1, wherein the first server is further configured to include the anycast Internet protocol address as the source address for error recovery in the metadata file.

8. The content distribution network of claim 1, wherein the first server is further configured to detect Internet protocol addresses of client devices that request the content.

9. The content distribution network of claim 1, the first server is further configured to include the Internet protocol address of the peer device as the source address for error recovery in the metadata file.

10. The content distribution network of claim 1, wherein the metadata file is required to be updated after a specific amount of time.

11. A method comprising:

receiving, at a first server, a number of client devices requesting content;

providing an anycast Internet protocol address of an anycast server as an Internet protocol address of the content in a list of sources to a second server;

determining that the number of client devices requesting the content exceeds a first threshold;

enabling a multicast server when the number of client devices requesting the content exceeds the first threshold;

allocating a multicast channel of the multicast server for delivery of the content in response to enabling the multicast server;

updating the list of sources to include a multicast Internet protocol address of the multicast server providing the multicast channel;

determining that the number of client devices requesting the content has fallen below a second threshold;

disabling the multicast server when the number of client devices requesting the content has fallen below the second threshold;

de-allocating the multicast channel in response to disabling the multicast server; and

updating the list of sources by removing the multicast Internet protocol address of the multicast server.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the list of sources is provided to a client device as a metadata file for receiving the content.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the metadata file is required to be updated after a specific amount of time.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

providing the anycast Internet protocol address of the anycast server as a source address for error recovery in the list of sources.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving an Internet protocol address of a peer device that has requested the content; and

providing the Internet protocol address of the peer device as a source address for error recovery in the list of sources.

16. A method comprising:

receiving, at a first server, a list of sources associated with content;

providing a metadata file including an anycast Internet protocol address of an anycast server from the list of sources as an Internet protocol address of the content;

sending a number of client devices requesting the content to a second server;

receiving, from the second server, an updated list of sources including a multicast Internet protocol address of a multicast server when the number of client devices requesting the content has exceeded the first threshold;

updating the metadata file to include the multicast Internet protocol address of the multicast server as a primary source address of the content;

receiving a next updated list of sources when the number of client devices requesting the content has fallen below a second threshold, wherein the multicast Internet protocol address of the multicast server is removed from the next updated list of sources; and

updating the metadata file to replace the multicast Internet protocol address with the anycast Internet protocol address of the anycast server as the primary source address of the content.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the metadata file is required to be updated after a specific amount of time.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

updating the metadata file to include the anycast Internet protocol address of the anycast server as a source address for error recovery.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

detecting Internet protocol addresses of client devices that request the content;

providing the Internet protocol addresses of the client devices to the second server;

receiving another updated list of sources with the list of Internet protocol addresses of the client devices as source addresses for error recovery; and

updating the metadata file to include the Internet protocol addresses of the client devices as the source addresses for error recovery.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the Internet protocol address of the client devices are grouped based on a zone of a network that the client devices are located.