DYNAMIC BIT RATE ENCODING

• US 20170111422A1
• Filed: 12/29/2016
• Published: 04/20/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.), Morris & Kamlay LLP
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Parekh, Neel B.
• Granted Patent: US 10,728,302 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234345 the reformatting operation being performed only on part of the stream, e.g. a region of the image or a time segment
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64753 directed to the client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64769 for rate control flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64792 Controlling the complexity of the content stream, e.g. by dropping packets intermediate media network packet handling H04L65/765; proxy provisioning conversion or adaptation for reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data H04L67/5651; negotiation of resources in wireless networks H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

Systems and methods for performing bit rate encoding are described. One of the methods includes receiving data indicating a change in a first connection speed that is associated with a first network. The change generates a second connection speed. The method further includes determining whether a media file is being downloaded. The method also includes determining that a current segment of the media file is being downloaded. The current segment is downloaded at a first bit rate and the first bit rate is associated with the first connection speed. The method includes determining whether the media file includes a remaining segment to be downloaded. The current segment precedes the remaining segment. The method includes identifying a second bit rate based on the second connection speed, receiving the remaining segment at the second bit rate, and stitching the remaining segment with the current segment.

Claims

1. A method for performing bit rate encoding on a client device, comprising:

receiving data indicating a change in a first connection speed that is associated with a first network, the change generating a second connection speed;

determining whether a media file is being downloaded in response to receiving the data indicating the change in the first connection speed;

determining that a current segment of the media file is being downloaded in response to determining that the media file is being downloaded, the current segment downloaded at a first bit rate, the first bit rate associated with the first connection speed;

determining whether the media file includes a remaining segment to be downloaded in response to determining that the media file is being downloaded, the current segment preceding the remaining segment; and

identifying a second bit rate based on the second connection speed in response to determining that the current segment is being downloaded and the remaining segment is to be downloaded;

requesting the remaining segment at the second bit rate;

receiving the remaining segment at the second bit rate; and

stitching the remaining segment with the current segment;

wherein the method is executed by one or more processors.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the data indicating the change in the first connection speed comprises receiving data from a network processor that the first connection speed that is associated with the first network has changed to the second connection speed that is associated with a second network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the media file includes a video file, an audio file, an image file, a text file, or a file that includes a combination of text, video, audio, and image.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the media file includes a remaining segment to be downloaded comprises determining that the current segment does not precede a boundary of the media file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein there is a lack of existence of a segment between the current segment and the remaining segment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a second bit rate based on the second connection speed comprises determining a maximum bit rate from among bit rates within the second connection speed.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein requesting the remaining segment at the second bit rate comprises sending a request to a server to send bits of the remaining segment at the second bit rate.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the remaining segment at the second bit rate comprises receiving the remaining segment at a network interface controller via a second network from a server at the second bit rate.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein stitching the current segment with the remaining segment is performed based on a time of finish of playback of the current segment received at the first bit rate.

10. A method for performing bit rate encoding on a server, comprising:

receiving data notifying a change in connection speed that is associated with a first network;

determining whether the notification of the change in the connection speed is received during communication of a media file at a first bit rate to a client device;

identifying a second bit rate based on the change in the connection speed;

determining whether the media file includes a first remaining segment and a second remaining segment to be sent to the client device in response to receiving the notification of the change in the connection speed, the first remaining segment preceding the second remaining segment, the first remaining segment to be sent at a first bit rate, the second remaining segment to be sent at a second bit rate;

stitching the second remaining segment with the first remaining segment of the media file; and

transmitting the first remaining segment at the first bit rate and the second remaining segment at the second bit rate to the client device,

wherein the method is executed by one or more processors.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the data notifying the change in the connection speed comprises receiving the data that indicates a change from a bandwidth of the first network to a bandwidth of a second network.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein determining that the first remaining segment is to be sent comprises determining that all bits of the first remaining segment are scheduled to be sent by a network interface controller of a server.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein determining whether the media file includes the second remaining segment to be sent to the client device comprises determining that the first remaining segment does not precede a boundary of the media file.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein identifying the second bit rate based on the data comprises determining a maximum bit rate among all bit rates of a bandwidth of a second network.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein stitching the second remaining segment with the first remaining segment is performed based on a time at which the first remaining segment is to finish playing back at a client device.

16. A client system for performing dynamic bit rate encoding, comprising:

a network interface controller configured to receive data indicating a change in a first connection speed that is associated with a first network, the change generating a second connection speed; and

a processor coupled with the network interface controller, the processor configured to determine whether a media file is being downloaded in response to receiving the data indicating the change in the first connection speed,

the processor configured to determine that a current segment of the media file is downloaded in response to determining that the media file is being downloaded, the current segment downloaded at a first bit rate, the first bit rate associated with the first connection speed,

the processor configured to determine whether the media file includes a remaining segment to be downloaded in response to determining that the media file is being downloaded, the current segment preceding the remaining segment;

the processor configured to identify a second bit rate based on the second connection speed in response to determining that the current segment is downloaded and the remaining segment is not downloaded,

the network interface controller configured to request the remaining segment at the second bit rate,

the network interface controller configured to receive the remaining segment at the second bit rate,

the processor configured to stitch the remaining segment with the current segment.

17. The client system of claim 16, wherein the network interface controller is configured to receive data that the first connection speed has changed to the second connection speed, the first connection speed associated with the first network and the second connection speed associated with a second network.

18. The client system of claim 16, wherein the media file includes a video file, an audio file, an image file, a text file, or a file that includes a combination of text, video, audio, and image.

19. The client system of claim 16, wherein the media file includes an audio file, wherein the processor is configured to determine that a frame of the audio file is being received by the network interface controller.