METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RATE CONTROLLED CONTENT STREAMING FROM CACHE

• US 20150271072A1
• Filed: 03/24/2014
• Published: 09/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Moreman, Charles, VerSteeg, Bill Carroll, Oran, David R., Narayanan, Ashok
• Application Number:
  US14/223,272
• Publication Number:
  US 20150271072A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/25 with rate being modified by the source upon detecting a change of network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/30 in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• 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

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes measuring at a cache node located on a data path between a content source and an adaptive streaming client, a time to retrieve content from the content source, and rate limiting streaming of the content from the cache node to the adaptive streaming client based on the measured time to retrieve the content. An apparatus and logic are also disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

measuring at a cache node located on a data path between a content source and an adaptive streaming client, a time to retrieve content from the content source; and

rate limiting streaming of the content from the cache node to the adaptive streaming client based on the measured time to retrieve the content.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising associating the time to retrieve the content with one or more objects.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said one or more objects comprise associated content.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein said one or more objects comprise the content and other content retrieved from the content source.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein rate limiting the streaming of the content comprises limiting a bitrate the content is streamed following a cache-hit.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein rate limiting the streaming of the content comprises streaming the content with a delay to approximate the time to retrieve the content.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the content source comprises another cache node interposed between the cache node and a content delivery network source.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the time to retrieve the content comprises a measured round trip time to retrieve the content for a cache-miss.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the time to retrieve the content comprises a maximum bit rate.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying a provisioned maximum downstream bit rate and setting an upper limit on the rate based on said provisioned maximum downstream bit rate.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein measuring the time to retrieve the content comprises estimating a time to retrieve based on unicast delivery of the content.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the adaptive streaming client requests the content at a lower bit rate than the limited rate.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting information identifying a limiting factor of the cache node'"'"'s response time to the adaptive streaming client.

14. An apparatus comprising:

a processor for measuring at a cache node configured for operation in a data path between a content source and an adaptive streaming client, a time to retrieve content from the content source, and rate limiting streaming of the content to the adaptive streaming client based on the measured time to retrieve the content; and

memory for storing the time to retrieve the content.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the processor is further configured to associate the time to retrieve the content with one or more objects.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein rate limiting the streaming of the content comprises limiting a bitrate the content is streamed following a cache-hit.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein rate limiting the streaming of the content comprises streaming the content with a delay to approximate the time to retrieve the content.

18. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the time to retrieve the content comprises a measured round trip time to retrieve the content for a cache-miss.

19. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the processor is further operable to transmit information identifying a limiting factor of the cache node'"'"'s response time to the adaptive streaming client.

20. Logic encoded on one or more non-transitory computer readable media for execution and when executed operable to:

measure at a cache node located on a data path between a content source and an adaptive streaming client, a time to retrieve content from the content source; and

rate limit streaming of the content to the adaptive streaming client based on the measured time to retrieve the content.