Directing Fragmented Content
First Claim
1. A method of directing a fragmented content to a content player, comprising:
- receiving a request at a fragment director from the content player to deliver said fragmented content to said content player;
identifying a list of a plurality of content servers hosting a copy of said fragmented content;
identifying one or more Universal Resource Locators (URLs) for each fragment of said fragmented content, each URL corresponding to at least one of said content servers;
selecting at least a first content server or group of content servers from the list of content servers to deliver at least a first fragment or group of fragments based on a first set of directing criteria;
selecting at least a second content server or group of content servers from the list of content servers to deliver at least a second fragment or group of fragments based on a second set of directing criteria; and
providing the URLs of said at least first and second fragments or groups of fragments corresponding to the selected at least first and second content servers or groups of content servers, respectively, to the content player.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Devices and methods of directing fragmented content, such as video or audio, to content players are disclosed. Requests are sent from content players to fragment directors to download fragmented content. The fragment directors identify, either internally or externally, content servers hosting said fragmented content. URLs corresponding to fragments of the fragmented content and pointing to different content servers are identified and selected by the fragment directors based on directing criteria. The URLs are provided to the content players. Therefore the fragmented content is balanced or switched on a fragment level among different content servers or groups of content servers.
57 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of directing a fragmented content to a content player, comprising:
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receiving a request at a fragment director from the content player to deliver said fragmented content to said content player; identifying a list of a plurality of content servers hosting a copy of said fragmented content; identifying one or more Universal Resource Locators (URLs) for each fragment of said fragmented content, each URL corresponding to at least one of said content servers; selecting at least a first content server or group of content servers from the list of content servers to deliver at least a first fragment or group of fragments based on a first set of directing criteria; selecting at least a second content server or group of content servers from the list of content servers to deliver at least a second fragment or group of fragments based on a second set of directing criteria; and providing the URLs of said at least first and second fragments or groups of fragments corresponding to the selected at least first and second content servers or groups of content servers, respectively, to the content player. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20)
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16. A fragment director comprising:
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a memory, configured to receive a list of available fragmented content and associated content servers hosting said fragmented content; one or more content server ports configured to assess traffic of a plurality of content servers; a processor, configured to process the assessed traffic and classify content servers based on the assessed traffic; and one or more content player ports configured to communicate with at least one content player; wherein the fragment director is configured to receive a request from said at least one content player for a fragmented content and send, in response, at least a URL address for each fragment of said fragmented content based on the classifying of content servers. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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Specification