System and Method of Adaptive Bit-Rate Streaming

• US 20150172352A1
• Filed: 12/17/2013
• Published: 06/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.), Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York (Columbia University)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gopalakrishnan, Vijay, Lee, Seungjoon, Ramakrishnan, Kadangode K., Misra, Vishal, Rubenstein, Daniel, Jana, Rittwik, Hwang, Kyung-Wook
• Granted Patent: US 9,699,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1059 End-user terminal functionalities specially adapted for real-time communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• 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 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: 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 21/85406 involving a specific file format, e.g. MP4 format

Abstract

A method includes receiving information from a tracker device indicating that a plurality of devices is associated with a media content item. The method also includes establishing peer-to-peer sessions with a first group and a second group of the devices, selecting the first group based on a first bit-rate satisfying a threshold bit-rate, and sending a first request, via a first peer-to-peer session, to a first device of the first group. The media content item is divided into a plurality of chunks. The first request identifies a first chunk. The method also includes receiving the first chunk, modifying the threshold bit-rate based on a number of buffered chunks, and selecting the second group based on a second bit-rate satisfying the modified threshold bit-rate. The method also includes sending a second request to a second device of the second group. The second request identifies a second chunk.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving information from a tracker device, wherein the information indicates that a plurality of devices is associated with a first media content item;

establishing peer-to-peer sessions with a first group of the plurality of devices and a second group of the plurality of devices;

selecting the first group based on a first bit-rate associated with the first group satisfying a threshold bit-rate;

sending a first request, via a first peer-to-peer session of the peer-to-peer sessions, to a first device of the first group, wherein the first media content item is divided into a plurality of chunks and wherein the first request identifies a first chunk of the plurality of chunks;

receiving the first chunk from the first device;

modifying the threshold bit-rate based on a number of buffered chunks;

selecting the second group based on a second bit-rate associated with the second group satisfying the modified threshold bit-rate; and

sending a second request, via a second peer-to-peer session of the peer-to-peer sessions, to a second device of the second group, wherein the second request identifies a second chunk of the plurality of chunks.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining the second peer-to-peer session with the second device while sending the first request via the first peer-to-peer session to the first device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining the second peer-to-peer session with the second device while receiving the first chunk from the first device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that a first number of chunks are being concurrently received from a first subset of devices of the plurality of devices, wherein the first request is sent to the first device based on the first number of chunks satisfying a threshold number of concurrent downloads.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold bit-rate is modified by a first particular amount based on determining that the number of buffered chunks does not satisfy a first threshold number of buffered chunks and that an elapsed time since modifying the threshold bit-rate satisfies a first threshold duration.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the threshold bit-rate is modified by a second particular amount based on determining that the number of buffered chunks satisfies a second threshold number of buffered chunks and that the elapsed time since decreasing the threshold bit-rate satisfies a second threshold duration.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the second chunk from the second device, wherein the second chunk is subsequent to the first chunk in a playback sequence of the plurality of chunks.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a peer information request to the plurality of devices in response to receiving the information; and

receiving first peer information from the first device, wherein the first peer information indicates that the first device has the first chunk available for transmission at the first bit-rate, and wherein the first group is selected based at least in part on the first peer information.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of requests from a first subset of the plurality of devices, wherein each of the plurality of requests includes a particular deadline and wherein each of the plurality of requests identifies a particular chunk of the first media content item;

identifying a particular request of the plurality of requests having an earliest playback deadline of a plurality of playback deadlines, the plurality of playback deadlines corresponding to the plurality of requests; and

sending the first chunk to a first requesting device of the first subset of the plurality of devices, wherein the particular request is received from the first requesting device.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining that a first number of chunks are concurrently being sent to a second subset of the plurality of devices, wherein the first chunk is sent to the first requesting device in response to determining that the first number satisfies a threshold number of concurrent uploads, wherein the first group includes the first requesting device, wherein the first subset of the plurality of devices includes a second requesting device, and wherein the second group includes the second requesting device.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising concurrently receiving the second chunk from the second device and sending the first chunk to the first requesting device.

12. A device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving information, wherein the information identifies a plurality of devices that store a segment of a first media content item;

establishing peer-to-peer sessions with a first group of the plurality of devices and a second group of the plurality of devices;

selecting the first group based on a first bit-rate;

sending a first request, via a first peer-to-peer session of the peer-to-peer sessions, to a first device of the first group, wherein the first media content item includes a plurality of segments and wherein the first request identifies a first segment of the plurality of segments;

receiving the first segment from the first device;

selecting the second group based on a second bit-rate, the second bit-rate selected in response to a number of buffered segments; and

sending a second request, via a second peer-to-peer session of the peer-to-peer sessions, to a second device of the second group, wherein the second request identifies a second segment of the plurality of segments.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein a particular peer-to-peer session is established based on determining that a first number of peer-to-peer sessions satisfies a threshold number of peer-to-peer sessions.

14. The device of claim 12, wherein a playback length of each of the plurality of segments is equal.

15. The device of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise, in response to not receiving the second segment from the second device within a threshold duration of sending the second request, resending the second request to the second device, sending a third request to a third device of the second group, or both.

16. The device of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a request denied message from the second device, the request denied message indicating that the second segment is unavailable; and

sending a third request to a third device of the second group in response to the request denied message.

17. The device of claim 12, wherein the threshold bit-rate is reduced to a first playback bit-rate in response to determining that the number of buffered segments is lower than or equal to a first threshold number of buffered segments, wherein the threshold bit-rate is increased to a third playback bit-rate in response to determining that the number of buffered segments is higher than a second threshold number of buffered segments, and wherein the threshold bit-rate corresponds to a second playback bit-rate prior to being modified.

18. A computer-readable storage device storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving information, wherein the information indicates that a plurality of devices is associated with a first media content item;

establishing peer-to-peer sessions with a first group of the plurality of devices and a second group of the plurality of devices;

selecting the first group based on a first bit-rate;

sending a first request, via a first peer-to-peer session of the peer-to-peer sessions, to a first device of the first group, wherein the first media content item is divided into a plurality of chunks and wherein the first request identifies a first chunk of the plurality of chunks;

receiving the first chunk from the first device;

selecting the second group based on a second bit-rate, the second bit-rate selected in response to a number of buffered chunks;

sending a second request, via a second peer-to-peer session of the peer-to-peer sessions, to a second device of the second group, wherein the second request identifies a second chunk of the plurality of chunks;

receiving a plurality of requests from a first subset of the plurality of devices, wherein each of the plurality of requests identifies a particular chunk of the plurality of chunks and a playback deadline of the particular chunk;

identifying a particular request of the plurality of requests based on a first playback deadline of the particular request; and

sending the first chunk to a requesting device of the plurality of devices, wherein the particular request is received from the requesting device and wherein the particular request identifies the first chunk.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the particular request is selected based on determining that the first playback deadline is an earliest deadline of a plurality of playback deadlines, the plurality of playback deadlines corresponding to the plurality of requests.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise initiating playback of the first chunk at a display device, wherein the first chunk is sent to the requesting device subsequent to playback of the first chunk at the display device.