TRANSMISSION APPARATUS, TRANSMISSION METHOD, AND NETWORK APPARATUS

• US 20140189772A1
• Filed: 06/21/2013
• Published: 07/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yamagishi, Yasuaki, Tsukagoshi, Ikuo
• Granted Patent: US 9,451,298 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/116
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/20 Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21 Server components or server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/218 Source of audio or video content , e.g. local disk arrays details of retrieval in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21805 enabling multiple viewpoints, e.g. using a plurality of cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21815 comprising local storage units
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2183 Cache memory caches in web servers or browsers G06F16/9574; intermediate storage and caching in data networks H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2225 Local VOD servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• 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 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/81 Monomedia components thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8146 involving graphical data, e.g. 3D object, 2D graphics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/816 involving special video data, e.g 3D video
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

To increase the efficiency of a cache and delivery resource control of video data streams in a network.

A meta file including information used by a client terminal to acquire a predetermined number of video data streams of given content deliverable by a delivery server via a network is generated. When a transmission request is received from a client terminal, the meta file is transmitted to the client terminal via the network. The meta file includes an index regarding a cache of each of the video data streams.

Claims

1. A transmission device comprising:

a meta file generating unit configured to generate a meta file including information used by a client terminal to acquire a predetermined number of video data streams of given content deliverable by a delivery server via a network; and

a meta file transmitting unit configured to upon receiving a transmission request from the client terminal, transmitting the meta file to the client terminal via the network,

wherein the meta file generating unit sets, in the meta file, an index regarding a cache of each of the video data streams in the network.

2. The transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the index regarding a cache is the index of a cache priority of a corresponding video data stream in the network.

3. Transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the index regarding a cache is the index of a cache expiry time of a corresponding video data stream in the network.

4. Transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined number of video data streams are multi-view video data streams that constitute a three-dimensional image.

5. Transmission device according to claim 4, wherein the meta file generating unit determines the index regarding a cache of each of the multi-view video data streams on the basis of viewpoint groups classified using estimated frequency of a request for delivery of each of the multi-view video data streams.

6. Transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined number of video data streams are MPEG-DASH based video data streams, the meta file is an MPD file, and the network is a CDN.

7. Transmission device according to claim 6, wherein the meta file generating unit sets, in the MPD file, the index regarding a cache of each of the video data streams in the network using a DescriptorType element.

8. A transmission method comprising:

a meta file generating step of generating a meta file including information used by a client terminal to acquire a predetermined number of video data streams of given content deliverable by a delivery server via a network; and

a meta file transmitting step of upon receiving a transmission request from the client terminal, transmitting the meta file to the client terminal via the network,

wherein in the meta file generating step, an index regarding a cache of each of the video data streams in the network is set in the meta file.

9. A network apparatus comprising:

a plurality of cache servers; and

a predetermined number of cache management servers,

wherein upon receives a meta file including information used by a client terminal to acquire a predetermined number of video data streams of given content deliverable by a delivery server via a network, the cache server transmits the meta file to the cache management server, and

wherein the cache management server generates a cache control policy on the basis of an index regarding a cache of each of the video data streams in the network included in the meta file and distributes the cache control policy to each of the cache servers.

10. The network apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the index regarding a cache is an index of a cache priority and/or an index of a cache expiry time.

11. The network apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the predetermined number of video data streams are MPEG-DASH based video data streams, the meta file is an MPD file, and the cache server is a DASH cache server.