DISTRIBUTION OF ADAPTIVE BIT RATE LIVE STREAMING VIDEO VIA HYPER-TEXT TRANSFER PROTOCOL

• US 20140215541A1
• Filed: 01/29/2013
• Published: 07/31/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Espial Group Incorporated (Enghouse Systems Limited)
• Original Assignee: Espial Group Incorporated (Enghouse Systems Limited)
• Inventors: Horen, Robert S., Sarto, Eivind, Truong, Khai
• Granted Patent: US 9,106,934 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/109
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communication real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM] H04L51/04; selective video distribution H04N21/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/222 Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2221 being a cable television head-end CATV in broadcast systems H04H20/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• 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 21/4621 Controlling the complexity of the content stream or additional data, e.g. lowering the resolution or bit-rate of the video stream for a mobile client with a small screen arrangements for using the results of monitoring on user's side in broadcast systems H04H60/65; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6373 for rate control , e.g. request to the server to modify its transmission rate flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64707 for transferring content from a first network to a second network, e.g. between IP and wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

A system, method and apparatus of distributing a video stream is provided. At a publishing point relay, a plurality of video files encoded from a portion of the video stream from a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Live Streaming (HLS) Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) encoding device are received. Each of the encoded video files having a different bit-rate, the encoded video files received using a protocol for transferring files. Edge publishing point servers are determined that are registered with the publishing point relay to distribute the audio/video stream. Each of the encoded video files received by the publishing point relay are relayed to each of the determined edge publishing points as each video file is received from the HTTP ABR encoding device.

Claims

1. A system for distributing a video stream, the system comprising:

a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Live Streaming (HLS) Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) encoding device adapted to;

receive a portion of the live video stream from a content source;

encode the received portion of the video stream into a plurality of encoded video files, each of the encoded video files having associated with a different bit rate stream; and

make each of the plurality of encoded video files available to one or more networked devices using a protocol for transferring files over a network;

a publishing point relay adapted to;

receive each of the plurality of the encoded video files from the HLS ABR encoding device using the protocol for transferring files over the network;

determine edge publishing points to transfer the encoded video files to from the publishing point relay; and

transfer each of the encoded video files received by the publishing point relay to each of the determined edge publishing points as each file is received from the HLS ABR encoding device; and

a plurality of edge publishing points, each adapted to;

receive and store the encoded video files transferred from the publishing point relay;

receive HTTP GET requests for one of the stored encoded video file from HTTP clients; and

transfer the requested encoded video files via HTTP GET responses to the requesting HTTP clients.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the publishing point relay maintains a list of edge publishing points to transfer the encoded video files to.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the publishing point relay is further adapted to dynamically update the list of the plurality of edge publishing points registered with the publishing point relay without any service affecting down time.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the publishing point relay is adapted to receive a file transfer protocol address of a publishing point to be registered with the relay and update the list of the plurality of registered edge publishing points to include the received file transfer protocol address.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the publishing point relay is adapted to receive an identification of one of the plurality of edge publishing points registered with the publishing point relay and to remove the identified publishing point from the plurality of publishing point registered with the publishing point relay to receive the encoded video files.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second publishing point relay, wherein the HLS ABR encoding device is further adapted to transfer each of the encoded video files to both the publishing point relay and a second publishing point relay.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the second publishing point relay provides fail-over capabilities to the publishing point relay.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of video files encoded from the portion of the video stream encode the same length time of the video stream into separate files each having different bit-rates.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the protocol for transferring files over a network used by HLS ABR encoding device to make the video files available is a network file system (NFS) protocol, wherein the HLS ABR encoding device writes the video files to an NFS drive, and wherein the publishing point relay receives each of the plurality of the encoded video files by receiving an indication that the individual video files are available and retrieves the video files.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the publishing point relay maintains a sliding window of video files each of the edge publishing points by deleting old video files as new video files are written.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein at least one of the edge publishing points is adapted to store a copy of each of the received video files to provide a live capture of the video stream for later nPVR play outs to provide “

Catch Up TV” and

similar enhanced services.

12. A method of distributing a video stream comprising:

receiving, at a publishing point relay, a plurality of video files encoded from a portion of the video stream from a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Live Streaming (HLS) Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) encoding device, each of the encoded video files having a different bit-rate, the encoded video files received using a protocol for transferring files;

determining edge publishing point servers registered with the publishing point relay to distribute the audio/video stream; and

relaying each of the encoded video files received by the publishing point relay to each of the determined edge publishing points as each video file is received from the HLS ABR encoding device.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising maintaining at the publishing point relay a list of edge publishing points to transfer the encoded video files to.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein maintaining the list of edge publishing points comprises:

receiving the IP address and port of an edge publishing point to be registered with the publishing point relay; and

updating the list of the plurality of registered edge publishing points to include the new edge publishing point.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein maintaining the list of edge publishing points further comprises:

receiving an identification of one of the edge plurality of edge publishing points registered with the publishing point relay; and

removing the identified edge publishing point from the plurality of edge publishing points registered with the publishing point relay.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving, at the publishing point relay, the plurality of video files comprises:

receiving, for each of the plurality of video files, a respective indication that the video file has been written to a network file system (NFS) disk; and

retrieving each of the video files from the NFS disk.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a portion of the video stream from a content source by a HLS ABR encoding device;

encoding the received portion of the video stream into the plurality of encoded video files, each of the encoded video files having different bit rates; and

making each of the plurality of encoded video files available to the publishing point relay.

18. The method of claim 12, registering at least one of the edge publishing points with the publishing point relay to receive the encoded video files.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising transferring each of the encoded video files to both the publishing point relay and a second publishing point relay.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the protocol for transferring files over a network used by HLS ABR encoding device to make the video files available is a network file system (NFS) protocol, wherein the HLS ABR encoding device writes the video files to an NFS drive, and wherein the publishing point relay receives each of the plurality of the encoded video files by receiving an indication that the individual video files are available and retrieves the video files.

21. An apparatus for use in streaming video, the apparatus comprising:

a processor for executing instruction; and

a memory for storing instructions, the instructions when executed by the processor configuring the apparatus to;

receive each of a plurality of encoded video files from a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Live Streaming (HLS) Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) encoding device using a protocol for transferring files over a network;

determine edge publishing points to transfer the encoded video files to from the publishing point relay; and

transfer each of the encoded video files received by the publishing point relay to each of the determined edge publishing points as each file is received from the HLS ABR encoding device.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the publishing point relay is further configured to maintain a list of edge publishing points to transfer the encoded video files to.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the publishing point relay is further configured to receive an identification of one of the plurality of edge publishing points registered with the publishing point relay and to remove the identified publishing point from the plurality of publishing point registered with the publishing point relay to receive the encoded video files.

24. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein each of the plurality of the received video files encode the same length time of the video stream into separate files each having different bit-rates.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the protocol for transferring files over a network used by HLS ABR encoding device to make the video files available is a network file system (NFS) protocol, wherein the HLS ABR encoding device writes the video files to an NFS drive, and wherein the publishing point relay receives each of the plurality of the encoded video files by receiving an indication that the individual video files are available and retrieves the video files.