ADAPTIVE BIT RATE PROXY

• US 20140351385A1
• Filed: 09/30/2013
• Published: 11/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Li, Yong, Chen, Xuemin, Macinnis, Alexander Garland, Schoner, Brian Francis
• Granted Patent: US 9,413,806 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/75 Media network packet handling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2225 Local VOD servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• 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 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

A device and method for providing an adaptive bit rate (ABR) proxy is disclosed. An ABR proxy determines an optimal data format to receive content segments for an audio/video (AV) content item from a source ABR server, and generates, based on that format and/or current network conditions, one or more local AV representations for providing content segments for the AV content item to locally connected devices. A local client device selects a local AV representation, and the ABR proxy provides the content segments for the AV content item to the local device in accordance with the selected local AV representation.

Claims

1. A method for providing adaptive bit rate (ABR) streaming to local devices, comprising:

selecting, from a plurality of source AV representations advertised by an ABR server, a first source AV representation for receiving one or more source content segments corresponding to an AV content item;

advertising, based on the first source AV representation, local AV representations for providing local content segments for the AV content item to one or more client devices;

receiving, from a local client device, a request for one or more local content segments according to a selected one of the local AV representations; and

providing the one or more local content segments to the local client device according to the selected one of the local AV representations.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the one or more source content segments from the ABR server according to the first source AV representation; and

generating the one or more local content segments for transmission to the local client device, wherein the first source AV representation comprises a first data rate and the requested one of the local AV representations comprises a second data rate, the second data rate being different than the first data rate.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein one of the local AV representations is an equivalent of the first source AV representation.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the first source AV representation is selected based on one or more network conditions related to receiving the source content segments from the ABR server.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving one or more client HTTP requests from the local client device, each client HTTP request being for a respective local content segment according to one of the local AV representations; and

for the one or more client HTTP requests, sending respective proxy HTTP requests to the ABR server for corresponding source content segments;

wherein the one or more local content segments are provided to the local client device according to the client HTTP requests.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the one or more source content segments from the ABR server according to a master playlist for the AV content item provided by the ABR server; and

providing the one or more local content segments to the local client device according to a local playlist, the local playlist being based on the master playlist and the local AV representations.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a change in one or more network conditions associated with receiving the one or more source content segments from the ABR server;

in response to detecting the change, selecting a second source AV representation from the plurality of source AV representations advertised by the ABR server; and

receiving one or more source content segments from the ABR server according to the second source AV representation.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

updating the local AV representations based on the second source AV representation;

receiving a request from the local client device to receive one or more new content segments according an updated local AV representation; and

providing the one or more new local content segments to the local client device according to updated local AV representation.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a network interface of the local client device; and

determining the local AV representations based on the network interface.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining one or more network conditions associated with a network interface of the local client device; and

determining the local AV representations based on the one or more network conditions.

11. A device for providing adaptive bit rate (ABR) streaming to local devices, the device configured to:

select, based on one or more network conditions, a first source AV representation from a plurality of source AV representations advertised by an adaptive bit rate (ABR) server for receiving at least a portion of a source AV stream for an AV content item; and

advertise local AV representations for providing at least a portion of a local AV stream for the AV content item to one or more client devices.

12. The device of claim 11, the device further being configured to:

receive, from a local client device, a request for a respective portion of the local AV stream according to a selected AV representation;

receive a respective portion of the source AV stream from the ABR server according to the respective source AV representation; and

generate the respective portion of the local AV stream based on the respective portion of the source AV stream; and

provide the respective portion of the local AV stream to the local client device according to the selected AV representation.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the source AV stream comprises source content segments, and the local AV stream comprises local content segments corresponding to the source content segments, the device further being configured to:

receive the source content segments from the ABR server according to a master playlist for the AV content item provided by the ABR server; and

provide the local content segments to the local client device according to a local playlist for the AV content item, the local playlist being based on the master playlist and the local AV representations.

14. The device of claim 13, the device further being configured to:

receive one or more client HTTP requests from the local client device, each client HTTP request being for a respective local content segment at one of the local AV representations; and

for each received client HTTP request, send a proxy HTTP request to the ABR server for a corresponding source content segment;

receive the source content segments from the ABR server according to the proxy HTTP requests.

15. The device of claim 12, the device further being configured to:

detect a change in one or more network conditions associated with receiving the source AV stream from the ABR server;

select, in response to detecting the change in the one or more network conditions, a second source AV representation from the plurality of source AV representations advertised by the ABR server; and

receive a portion of the source AV stream from the ABR server according to the second source AV representation.

16. The device of claim 15, the device further being configured to:

update, based on the second source AV representation, the local AV representations;

receive a request from the local client device to receive a portion of the local AV stream according to a selected one of the updated local AV representations; and

provide a portion of the local AV stream to the local client device according to the selected one of the updated local AV representations.

17. The device of claim 12, the device further being configured to:

determine a network interface of the local client device, wherein the local AV representations are generated based on the network interface.

18. The device of claim 12, the device further being configured to:

determine one or more network conditions associated with a network interface of the local client device; and

determine the local AV representations based on the one or more network conditions associated with the network interface.

19. The device of claim 18, the device further being configured to:

determine a change in the one or more network conditions associated with the network interface; and

updating the local AV representations based on the change in the one or more network channel conditions associated with the network interface.

20. A computer program product comprising instructions stored in a tangible computer-readable medium, the instructions comprising:

instructions for selecting, based on one or more network conditions, a source AV representation advertised by an adaptive bit rate (ABR) server for receiving at least a portion of a source AV stream for an AV content item from the ABR server; and

instructions for advertising local AV representations for providing a local AV stream for the AV content item to one or more client devices.

instructions for receiving, from a local client device, a request for a portion of the local AV stream according to a selected local AV representation;

instructions for receiving a portion of the source AV stream from the ABR server according to the selected source AV representation;

instructions for generating the portion of the local AV stream; and

instructions for providing the portion of the local AV stream to the local client device according to the selected local AV representation.