DISTRIBUTION OF PORTIONS OF CONTENT

• US 20130064370A1
• Filed: 09/12/2011
• Published: 03/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gouge, Christopher S., Pokluda, David, Rangarajan, Rajasekaran
• Granted Patent: US 9,253,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/255
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/232 Content retrieval operation locally within server, e.g. reading video streams from disk arrays storage management G06F3/0604; details of querying and searching of video data from a database G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

Techniques for obtaining and providing a portion of content include receiving a request for the portion of the content, requesting and receiving one or more data chunks, processing the one or more data chunks, and providing one or more data blocks as the requested portion of the content. The processing may include validating, decrypting, and/or decompressing the one or more data chunks to create the one or more data blocks. Techniques for providing metadata and one or more data chunks may include receiving content and dividing the content into data blocks. Processing may then be performed on the data blocks to create data chunks, and the metadata may be generated from the processing. The metadata and one or more of the data chunks may be provided to a device.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory, communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, storing one or more modules configured to;

receive, from an application of the device, a request for a range of bytes of content, the requested range of bytes being equal to or less than a byte range of an entirety of the content, the content being stored in a content source as a plurality of data chunks,

request some of the plurality of data chunks from the content source based on the requested range of bytes,

receive the requested data chunks from the content source,

process the received data chunks by validating, decrypting, and/or decompressing the received data chunks, the processed data chunks corresponding to data blocks of the content,

combine the data blocks and/or remove portions of the data blocks to create the requested range of bytes of the content, and

provide the combined data blocks to the application of the device as the requested range of bytes of the content.

2. A method implemented by a device, comprising:

receiving, at the device, a request for a portion of content, the content being stored in a content source as a plurality of data chunks, the request indicating a data range of the content;

requesting, by the device, one or more of the plurality of data chunks from the content source based on the data range;

receiving, at the device, the requested one or more data chunks from the content source;

processing, at the device, the received one or more data chunks into one or more data blocks of the content; and

providing, by the device, the one or more data blocks as the requested portion of the content.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the receiving the request includes receiving the request for the portion of content from an application of the device.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining that metadata indicating processing performed at the content source on a plurality of data blocks to create the plurality of data chunks is not stored in the device; and

requesting and receiving the metadata from the content source.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving metadata from the content source, the metadata indicating processing performed at the content source on a plurality of data blocks to create the plurality of data chunks,

wherein the processing the received one or more data chunks includes processing the received one or more data chunks based on the received metadata.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein

the metadata includes validation information for each of the plurality of data chunks, and

the processing the received one or more data chunks includes validating each of the received one or more data chunks based on the validation information included in the metadata.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein

the validation information includes a computed hash value for each of the plurality of data chunks and/or identifies a hash algorithm utilized at the content source, and

the processing the received one or more data chunks includes validating each of the received one or more data chunks based on the computed hash value and/or the hash algorithm.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the metadata includes validation information, encryption information, and compression information for each of the plurality of data chunks, and the processing the received one or more data chunks includes:

validating each of the received one or more data chunks with the validation information,

decrypting each of the received one or more data chunks with the encryption information, and

decompressing each of the received one or more data chunks with the compression information.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the metadata includes position, size, and identification information for each of the plurality of data blocks and/or chunks, the position information indicating a position of each of the plurality of data blocks and/or chunks with respect to the content, the identification information identifying a data block that is associated with a data chunk, and the size information indicating a data size of each of the plurality of data blocks and/or chunks, and the method further comprises:

determining, in response to receiving the request for the portion of content, a list of data blocks based on the data range and the position, size, and/or identification information; and

converting the list of data blocks to a list of data chunks based on the position, size, and/or identification information,

wherein the requesting one or more of the plurality of data chunks includes requesting data chunks included within the list of data chunks.

10. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

combining, before the providing the one or more data blocks, the one or more data blocks to create the requested portion of the content,

wherein the providing includes providing the combined one or more data blocks as the requested portion of the content.

11. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

removing data from the one or more data blocks, the removed data corresponding to data that is not part of the data range.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein

the content comprises an application to be installed on the device, and

the receiving the request includes receiving a request for a portion of the application from an installation application of the device.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein

the content comprises media data to be reproduced on the device, and

the receiving the request includes receiving a request for a portion of the media data from a media application configured to reproduce the media data.

14. A method implemented by a device, comprising:

receiving, at the device, content from a content generating device;

dividing, at the device, the content into a plurality of data blocks;

performing, at the device, processing on the plurality of data blocks to create a plurality of data chunks;

generating, at the device, metadata from the processing, the metadata describing the processing performed at the device to create the plurality of data chunks; and

providing, by the device, the metadata and one or more of the plurality of data chunks to another device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the dividing includes dividing the content into the plurality of data blocks based on a predetermined number of bytes, sections included in the content, a type or format of the content, types of information included in the content, requirements of a distribution channel, and/or predefined parameters set by a user.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

analyzing the content to determine types of information included in the content, the types of information including a first type and a second type,

wherein the dividing the content includes dividing the content into the plurality of data blocks based on the determined types of information, the plurality of data blocks including a first data block associated with the first type and a second data block associated with the second type.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein

the performing processing includes,

compressing and/or encrypting the first data block based on a first compression method and/or a first encryption method, and

compressing and/or encrypting the second data block based on a second compression method and/or a second encryption method.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein

the performing processing includes,

compressing each of the plurality of data blocks,

encrypting each of the plurality of data blocks, and

creating validation information for each of the plurality of data blocks, and

the metadata includes compression information indicating a type of compression performed in the compressing, encryption information indicating a type of encryption performed in the encrypting, and the validation information.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

storing the generated metadata for each of the plurality of data blocks into a block definition table,

wherein the providing the metadata includes providing the block definition table to the another device.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the device is a content source configured to distribute the content to one or more other devices in response to receiving one or more requests from the one or more other devices.