CONTENT DELIVERY

• US 20130185399A1
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Published: 07/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Appleby, Stephen Clifford, Crabtree, Ian Barry, Nilsson, Michael Erling, Turnbull, Rory Stewart
• Granted Patent: US 9,723,046 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation

Abstract

A method for providing equitable media streaming between an HTTP server and a number of receivers via shared network. The streaming data is processed to split the data across a number of sub-streams. Each sub-stream contains non-contiguous data. A receiver requesting the streaming media establishes a number of TCP sessions, one for each sub-stream and the received sub-stream data is reassembled at the receiver so that the streaming media can be presented.

Claims

1. A method of presenting data on a data presentation device, the method comprising the receiver performing the steps of:

establishing a number of data transfer sessions with a streaming server;

receiving segments of streaming media from the streaming server over said number of data transfer sessions, said segments of streaming media being formed of sets of non contiguous data, the number of sets being equal to the number of established data sessions;

reassembling the streaming media from the sets of non-contiguous video data; and

decoding the streaming media content for presentation.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving metadata describing the format of the streaming media and a value describing the number of sessions required to receive the streaming media, and

wherein the number of data transfer sessions established to the server varies and is dependent on the value defined in the metadata file for each segment.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the metadata file further includes a complexity value indicative of the complexity of the media data within each segment of streaming media and the number of data transfer sessions established to the server varies and is dependent on the complexity value defined in the metadata file for each segment.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the reassembling comprises interleaving successive data from the sets of non-contiguous data to recreate the streaming media.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the streaming media is available in a plurality of different quality levels and if the network link to the streaming server deteriorates, the method further comprises receiving streaming media of a lower quality.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data transfer sessions are Transport Control Protocol (TCP) sessions.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the streaming media is streaming video data.

8. A data presentation device comprising:

a data session establisher for establishing a number of data transfer sessions with a streaming server;

a data receiver receiving segments of streaming media from the streaming server over said number of data transfer sessions, said segments of streaming media being formed of sets of non contiguous data, the number of sets being equal to the number of established data sessions;

a reassembler for reassembling the streaming media from the sets of non-contiguous video data; and

a decoder for decoding the streaming media content for presentation.

9. A method of generating a streaming media presentation comprising:

dividing an input media into a plurality of segments of encoded media data;

for each segment;

generating sub-segments of video data, the number of sub-segments generated being dependent on a predetermined value for that segment, and the video data within each segment being distributed across the sub-segments such that each sub-segment contains non-contiguous video data; and

storing the segments and sub-segments of video data in a data store.

10. A method according to claim 9, further comprising analysing the complexity of the media in each segment and wherein the predetermined value indicative of the number of sub-segments generated is a complexity value based on the analysis.

11. A method according to claim 9, further comprising, generating metadata describing the encoded video data and including the number of sub-segments generated corresponding to each segment.

12. Apparatus for generating a streaming media presentation comprising:

a media splitter for dividing an input media into a plurality of segments of encoded media data;

a segmenter for processing each segment to generate sub-segments of video data, the number of sub-segments generated being dependent on a predetermined value for that segment, and the video data within each segment being distributed across the sub-segments such that each sub-segment contains non-contiguous video data; and

a data store for storing the segments and sub-segments of video data.

13. Apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising an analyser for analysing the complexity of the media in each segment and wherein the predetermined value indicative of the number of sub-segments generated is a complexity value based on the analysis.

14. Apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising, a metadata generator for generating metadata describing the encoded video data and including the number of sub-segments generated corresponding to each segment.