METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSFERRING FILES TO CLIENTS USING A PEER-TO-PEER FILE TRANSFER MODEL AND A CLIENT-SERVER TRANSFER MODEL

• US 20140115106A1
• Filed: 12/23/2013
• Published: 04/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Painter, Christopher, Lin, Frank Li-De, Hwang, Paul, Miller, Timothy S.
• Application Number:
  US14/138,825
• Publication Number:
  US 20140115106A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/108 characterised by resources being split in blocks or fragments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1085 involving dynamic management of active down- or uploading connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1091 Interfacing with client-server systems or between P2P systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• 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 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided for delivering a content file to a client over a packet-switched network. The method begins by determining a suitable throughput required to deliver the content file to the client. Next, the throughput available in a peer-to-peer network for delivering the content file to the client is determined. The required throughput is compared to the available throughput. If the available throughput is less than the required throughput, the available throughput is supplemented with additional throughput. The content is then delivered to the client over the packet-switched network using the available throughput of the peer-to-peer network and the additional throughput.

Claims

1. A method for delivering a content file to a client over a packet switched-network, comprising:

in a server;

determining a first throughput required to deliver said content file to said client and a second throughput available in a peer-to-peer network for delivering said content file to said client;

supplementing said second throughput available in said peer-to-peer network with a third throughput provided by a content delivery network, when said second throughput available in said peer-to-peer network is less than said first throughput required to deliver said content file to said client; and

delivering said content file to said client over said packet-switched network using a combination of said second throughput available in said peer-to-peer network and said third throughput provided by said content delivery network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising supplementing said second throughput available in said peer-to-peer network with a fourth throughput provided by a backup peer server employed as a peer in said peer-to-peer network on an as-needed basis.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said backup peer server is configured to function as a seed client.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining said first throughput required to deliver said content file based on a delivery method to be employed for delivering said content file to said client.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said delivery method to be employed for delivering said content file to said client comprises one of:

a streaming media method or a file downloading method.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising delivering a first portion of said content file over said peer-to-peer network and a second portion of said content file over said content delivery network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said peer-to-peer network operates based on a file transfer protocol, wherein said file transfer protocol comprises one of:

BitTorrent, Kazaa, eDonkey, Gnutella, and Direct Connect.

8. A method for delivering a content file to a client over a packet-switched network, comprising:

in a server;

determining a first throughput required to deliver said content file to said client and a second throughput available in a peer-to-peer network for delivering said content file to said client;

supplementing said second throughput available in said peer-to-peer network with a third throughput provided by a backup peer server, when said second throughput available in said peer-to-peer network is less than said first throughput required to deliver said content file to said client;

supplementing said second throughput available in said peer-to-peer network with a fourth throughput provided by a content delivery network, when a combination of said second throughput available in said peer-to-peer network and said third throughput provided by said backup peer server is less than said first throughput required to deliver said content file to said client; and

delivering said content file to said client over said packet-switched network using a combination of said second throughput available in said peer-to-peer network, said third throughput provided by said backup peer server, and said fourth throughput provided by said content delivery network.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said content delivery network employs a client-server protocol and is configured such that a central server delivers said content file to each client that requests said content file, wherein said client is configured to only communicate with said central server.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising delivering a first portion of said content file over said peer-to-peer network, a second portion of said content file over said backup peer server, and a remaining portion of said content file over said content delivery network.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein said peer-to-peer network operates based on a file transfer protocol, wherein said file transfer protocol comprises one of:

BitTorrent, Kazaa, eDonkey, Gnutella, and Direct Connect.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein said backup peer server is configured to function as a seed client.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining said first throughput based on a delivery method to be employed for delivering said content file to said client.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said delivery method comprises one of:

a streaming media method or a file downloading method.

15. The method of claim 8, further comprising monitoring said first throughput required to deliver said content file to said client, said second throughput available in said peer-to-peer network, said third throughput provided by said backup peer server, and said fourth throughput provided by said content delivery network.

16. A method for receiving a content file over a packet-switched network, comprising:

in a client communicably coupled to a server;

receiving said content file from said server over said packet-switched network using a first throughput available in said peer-to-peer network when said first throughput available in said peer-to-peer network is at least equal to or more than a second throughput required to deliver said content file to said client; and

receiving said content file from said server over said packet-switched network using said first throughput available in said peer-to-peer network supplemented with a third throughput when said first throughput available in said peer-to-peer network is less than said second throughput required to deliver said content file to said client, wherein said third throughput is provided by a content delivery network.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving a first portion of said content file from said server using said peer-to-peer network; and

receiving a remaining portion of said content file from said server using said content delivery network.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving said content file from said server over said packet-switched network using said first throughput available in said peer-to-peer network further supplemented with a fourth throughput when said first throughput supplemented with said third throughput is less than said second throughput required to deliver said content file to said client, wherein said fourth throughput is provided by a backup peer server.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving a first portion of said content file from said server using said peer-to-peer network;

receiving a second portion of said content file from said server using said content delivery network; and

receiving a remaining portion of said content file from said server using said backup peer server.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein said content file comprises one or more of:

an application program, a data file, an audio file, a video file, a multimedia file, an operating system component, a software driver, a software update, and a software product associated with a consumer electronic device.