METHOD AND APPARATUS TO CONTROL A MULTIPATH ADAPTIVE STREAMING SESSION

• US 20130151673A1
• Filed: 12/13/2012
• Published: 06/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Madison Patent Holdings (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: GOUACHE, Stephane, Burklin, Helmut, Straub, Gilles
• Granted Patent: US 9,641,579 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: C07D 305/14 condensed with carbocyclic rings or ring systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

The present invention concerns a method to control the transmission and transmission data rate between at least two servers and a receiver. The servers being adapted to transmit data representative of an audiovisual content. The audiovisual content being available from each of said at least two servers in at least two versions. The versions corresponding respectively to different transmission bit-rates. The servers being adapted to transmit audiovisual contents in successive parts, each of said successive parts being chosen as one of at least two versions in response to transmission requests sent by the receivers, said transmission requests comprising a transmission parameter.

Claims

1. Method to control the transmission between at least two servers and a receiver, said servers being adapted to transmit data representative of an audiovisual content, said audiovisual content being available from each of said at least two servers in at least two versions, said versions corresponding respectively to different transmission bit-rates, said at least two servers being adapted to transmit said audiovisual content in successive parts, each of said successive parts being chosen as a part of one of at least two versions from one of said at least two servers in response to transmission requests sent by said receiver, said transmission requests comprising at least a transmission parameter, said method comprising at a controller the steps of:

reception of information from a receiver, said information being representative of the delivery of said audiovisual content from one of said at least two servers to said receiver,

transmission of a control parameter to said receiver said control parameter being computed from at least said information in order to define from said control parameter said at least one transmission parameter.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein said information is one of the following parameters:

a server identifier,

a receiver identifier,

an identifier of a group of receivers which comprises said receiver,

a positioning information of said receiver,

the data transmission bit-rate between any of said at least two servers and said receiver,

a size of a data reception buffer of said receiver,

a quality indicator of the delivery of said audiovisual content from one of said at least two servers to said receiver,

the number of times said receiver switches from one of said versions to another one of said versions during a given time interval while receiving said audiovisual content from one of said at least two servers,

the number of bytes received by said receiver from one of said at least two servers during a predefined time interval,

the number of bytes received by said receiver from one of said at least two servers during a predefined time range for each of said at least two versions of said audiovisual content.

3. Method according to claim 1, wherein said control parameter is one of the following parameters:

a server identifier,

a maximum value of bit-rate to be requested to any of said at least two servers,

a list of allowed versions of said versions to be requested to any of said at least two servers,

a maximum size of reception buffer,

a maximum speed factor to be indicated to any of said at least two servers within said request,

a parameter of the adaptive streaming algorithm of said receiver.

4. Apparatus for receiving data, said data being representative of an audiovisual content, said audiovisual content being available from at least two servers in at least two versions corresponding respectively to different transmission bit-rates, the transmission of said audiovisual content being performed in successive parts, each of said successive parts being chosen as a part of one of at least two versions in response to transmission requests sent by said apparatus, said transmission requests comprising a transmission parameter, said apparatus further comprising:

a communication interface for

sending an information representative of the delivery of an audiovisual content from one of said at least two servers, and for

receiving a control parameter, said control parameter being defined from said information representative of the delivery of an audiovisual content to said apparatus,

a computing module to compute said transmission parameter of said transmission request from at least said control parameter.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4, comprising a memory for the storage of said control parameter and said information representative of the delivery of said audiovisual content from one of said at least two servers.

6. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein it is a laptop equipment.

7. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein it is a set-top box.

8. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein it is a mobile terminal.

9. Apparatus to control the transmission between at least two servers and a receiver, said data being representative of an audiovisual content, said audiovisual content being available from each of at least two servers in at least two versions, said versions corresponding respectively to different transmission bit-rates, said at least two servers being adapted to transmit said audiovisual content in successive parts, each of said successive parts being chosen as a part of one of at least two versions in response to transmission requests sent by said a receiver, said transmission requests comprising a transmission parameter, said apparatus comprising:

a computing module to compute a control parameter from at least said information,

a communication interface

for receiving from said receiver an information representative of the delivery of an audiovisual content by one of said at least two servers and to transmit said control parameter to said receiver.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein it is located in a residential gateway equipment;

11. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein it is located in a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer equipment.

12. Method in a receiver for receiving data from one of at least two servers, said data being representative of an audiovisual content, said audiovisual content being available from each of at least two servers in at least two versions, said versions corresponding respectively to different transmission bit-rates, said at least two servers being adapted to transmit said audiovisual content in successive parts, each of said successive parts being chosen as a part of one of at least two versions in response to transmission requests sent by said receiver, said transmission requests comprising a transmission parameter, said method comprising the steps of:

transmission to a controller of information representative of the delivery of said audiovisual content to said receiver,

reception from a controller of a control parameter, said control parameter being defined from said information representative of the delivery of said audiovisual content to said receiver,

transmission to one of said at least two servers of a request comprising said transmission parameter defined from at least said control parameter.

13. Method according to claim 12 wherein the step of reception of a control parameter further comprises a step of updating at least one reception parameter of said receiver.