Statistical Remultiplexing of ABR Streams

• US 20150071075A1
• Filed: 09/11/2013
• Published: 03/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramakrishnan, Sangeeta
• Granted Patent: US 9,621,604 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/236
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/38 by adapting coding or compression rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2401 Monitoring of the client buffer
• 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 21/26258 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 21/654 Transmission by server directed to the client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

Statistical remultiplexing of adaptive bit rate streams may be provided. First a video quality associated with a first representation of a content stream being delivered to a first client on a shared network may be determined. The content stream may be available in a plurality of representations, each representation comprising a plurality of chunks of varying sizes and a manifest having an indication of a quality level and a bit rate for the representation. Next, network conditions may be analyzed to determine whether a bit rate of the content stream being delivered to the first client device should be adjusted to adjust the video quality. Based on the determined video quality and the network conditions, it may then be communicated to the first client device to request a second representation of the content stream.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a video quality associated with a first representation of a content stream being delivered to a first client on a shared network, wherein the content stream is available in a plurality of representations, each representation comprising a plurality of chunks of varying sizes and a manifest having an indication of a quality level and a bit rate for the representation;

analyzing network conditions to determine whether a bit rate of the content stream being delivered to the first client device should be adjusted to adjust the video quality; and

communicating, based on the determined video quality and the network conditions, to the first client device to request a second representation of the content stream.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the network conditions comprises determining at least one of:

a bandwidth available to the first client device, an aggregate bandwidth available to a plurality of client devices connected on a shared network, and pre-existing network policies associated with the bandwidth.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising reallocating a portion of the network bandwidth from a second client device to the first client device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the network conditions comprises monitoring buffer levels at each of a plurality of client devices connected to a shared network.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising reallocating a portion of the network bandwidth from a second client device to the first client device, when the first client device has a lower buffer level.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating to the first client device to request the second representation of the content stream comprises the first client sending a request for the second representation to a content server.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first client sending the request for the second representation to the content server comprises the first client sending the request for the second representation to the content server wherein the second representation comprises a higher video quality than the first representation.

8. A system comprising:

a plurality of client devices configured to receive content streams from a video server over a shared network, each of the content streams having a manifest for plural encoded representations of the content streams, each representation fragmented into plural chunks of varying size, each representation comprising a different video quality level, the manifest listing the plurality of representations, each representation comprising the plural chunks of varying sizes; and

a bit rate processor configured to;

monitor a video quality associated with each of the representations of the content streams being delivered to the plurality of client devices,

determine whether the video quality of the representations of the content streams being delivered to the plurality of client devices are within a predetermined video quality level, and

analyze network conditions to determine whether the representation of the content streams being delivered to at least one of the plurality of client devices should be adjusted to adjust the video quality level.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein a bit rate associated with a representation of a content stream comprises the video quality.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the bit rate processor, based on the analysis, is further configured to select a different representation of the content stream based on an overall available bandwidth and the bit rate for the different representation.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the predetermined video quality level is determined based on type of program being delivered to the plurality of client devices.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein metadata for each chunk comprises one of the plurality of quality levels and a size of the chunk with its duration information or the chunk bit rate.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the content streams comprises one of the following:

audio, video, and a combination of audio and video.

14. An apparatus comprising:

a memory comprising logic; and

a processor configured by the logic to;

determine a video quality associated with a first representation of a content stream being delivered to a first client on a shared network, wherein the content stream is available in a plurality of representations, each representation comprising a plurality of chunks of varying sizes and a manifest having an indication of a quality level and a bit rate for the representation;

analyze network conditions to determine whether a bit rate of the content stream being delivered to the first client device should be adjusted to adjust the video quality; and

communicate to the first client device to request a second representations of the content stream based on the analysis.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is located in one of the following:

a cable modem terminal system (CMTS), a mobile network, a mobile packet core, a WiFi access point, a cable modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, and a residential gateway.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to obtain a quality metric, the quality metric comprising a plurality of content streams available for the first client device, a plurality of representations for each of the plurality of content streams, a bit rate associated with each of the plurality of representations, and a video quality associated with each of the plurality of representations.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the quality metric is obtained by parsing manifest files of the plurality of representations.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to reallocating a portion of the network bandwidth assigned to the first client device to a second client device

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to compare the determined video quality with a predetermined video quality defined by an user of the first client device.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the predetermined video quality level is determined based on an input from a user of the at least one client device.