METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEGMENTING DATA

• US 20170339437A1
• Filed: 05/19/2017
• Published: 11/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Robert Erich, Moroney, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 10,701,415 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234 Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing of video streams or manipulating encoded video stream scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2383 Channel coding or modulation of digital bit-stream, e.g. QPSK modulation arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by adapting the channel coding H04L1/0009; analogue front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/643 Communication protocols network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP], H04L65/65
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

A method and system is provided for segmenting blocks of video data into chunks for consumption by player devices to create a new block to improve overall chunk creation. In one embodiment, issues that occur at the PCP block boundaries are handled by creating two chunks, one from the tail of content from the previous block and the other from the start of the new block, with the sums of the two chunks approximately equal to the target duration, improving manifest and chunk cadence creation. In another embodiment, chunks are created when the sink 104 requests a new manifest regardless of whether a proxy chunk timer pulling data from the PCP block has expired or not.

Claims

1. A method of coding a live video stream, the video stream comprising a plurality of blocks, including a first block and a second block temporally following the first block, the method comprising:

(a) determining if a duration of a remaining portion of the first block is greater than or equal to a target duration;

(b) if the duration of the remaining portion of the first block is greater than or equal to the target duration, generating a media segment temporally spanning the target duration;

(c) if the duration of the remaining portion of the first block is less than the target duration, generating a media segment spanning the remaining portion of the first block;

(d) updating a set of media segment identifiers to be published with an identifier of the generated media segment;

(e) repeating (a)-(d) until no portion of the first block remains;

(f) generating a further media segment from a temporally beginning portion of the second block, the further media segment temporally spanning no more than a difference between the target duration and a duration of a temporally last of the media segments generated from the first block; and

(g) updating the set of media identifiers to be published with the identifier of the generated further media segment.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(h) determining if a duration of a remaining portion of the second block is greater than or equal to a target duration;

(i) if the duration of the remaining portion of the second block is greater than or equal to the target duration, generating a still further media segment spanning the target duration;

(j) if the duration of the remaining portion of the second block is less than the target duration, generating a still further media segment spanning the remaining portion of the first block; and

(k) updating the set of media segment identifiers to be published with an identifier of the generated still further media segment.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising

receiving a request for a manifest, the manifest comprising the list of the set of media segment identifiers;

and

in response to the receiving of the request for the manifest at the interval of the target duration

determining if the set of media segment identifiers includes media segment identifiers that have not been published;

if the set of media segment identifiers includes media segment identifiers that have not been published, publishing the manifest comprising the list of the set of media segment identifiers;

if the set of media segment identifiers does not include media segment identifiers that have not been published, generating an interim media segment temporally spanning from an end of a previously generated media segment to a time the manifest request is received; and

updating the set of media identifiers with the identifier of the generated interim media segment; and

publishing the manifest comprising the list of the media segment identifiers including the identifier of the generated interim media segment.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

the list of media segment identifiers comprises at most N media segment identifiers;

updating the list of media segment identifiers with an identifier of the generated media segment comprises;

postpending the list of the media segment identifiers with the identifier of the generated segment;

removing a temporally oldest identifier of the list of media segment identifiers from the list of the media segment identifiers if the appended list of the media segment identifiers includes more than N media segment identifiers;

updating the list of media segment identifiers with the identifier of the generated interim media segment comprises;

postpending the list of the media segment identifiers with the identifier of the generated interim media segment;

removing a temporally oldest identifier of the list of media segment identifiers from the list of the media segment identifiers if the appended list of the media segment identifiers includes more than N media segment identifiers.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reading a block header describing the block length; and

controlling a read loop of the live video stream according to the target duration and the block length to read the live video stream.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the live video stream is a digital living network alliance compliant video stream, and the media segments are HTTP live streaming (HLS) compliant media segments.

7. An apparatus for coding a live video stream, the video stream comprising a plurality of blocks, including a first block and a second block temporally following the first block, the apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a memory, communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing processor instructions including processor instructions for;

(a) determining if a duration of a remaining portion of the first block is greater than or equal to a target duration;

(b) if the duration of the remaining portion of the first block is greater than or equal to the target duration, generating a media segment temporally spanning the target duration;

(c) if the duration of the remaining portion of the first block is less than the target duration, generating a media segment spanning the remaining portion of the first block;

(d) updating a set of media segment identifiers to be published with an identifier of the generated media segment;

(e) repeating (a)-(d) until no portion of the first block remains;

(f) generating a further media segment from a temporally beginning portion of the second block, the further media segment temporally spanning no more than a difference between the target duration and a duration of a temporally last of the media segments generated from the first block; and

(g) updating the set of media identifiers to be published with the identifier of the generated further media segment.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor instructions further comprise instructions for:

(h) determining if a duration of a remaining portion of the second block is greater than or equal to a target duration;

(i) if the duration of the remaining portion of the second block is greater than or equal to the target duration, generating a still further media segment spanning the target duration;

(j) if the duration of the remaining portion of the second block is less than the target duration, generating a still further media segment spanning the remaining portion of the first block; and

(k) updating the set of media segment identifiers to be published with an identifier of the generated still further media segment.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor instructions further comprise instructions for:

receiving a request for a manifest at an interval of the target duration, the manifest comprising the list of the set of media segment identifiers; and

in response to the receiving of the request for the manifest at the interval of the target duration;

determining if the set of media segment identifiers includes media segment identifiers that have not been published;

if the set of media segment identifiers includes media segment identifiers that have not been published, publishing the manifest comprising the list of the set of media segment identifiers;

if the set of media segment identifiers does not include media segment identifiers that have not been published, generating an interim media segment temporally spanning from an end of a previously generated media segment to a time the manifest request is received; and

updating the set of media identifiers with the identifier of the generated interim media segment; and

publishing the manifest comprising the list of the segment of media segment identifiers including the identifier of the generated interim media segment.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein:

the set of media segment identifiers comprises at most N media segment identifiers;

the instructions for updating a set of media segment identifiers with an identifier of the generated media segment comprise instructions for;

prepending a list of the set of media identifiers with the identifier of the generated segment;

removing a temporally oldest identifier of the set of media identifiers from the list of the set of media identifiers if the appended list of the set of media identifiers includes more than N media segment identifiers;

the instructions for updating the set of media identifiers with the identifier of the generated interim media segment comprise instructions for;

postpending the list of the set of media identifiers with the identifier of the generated interim media segment;

removing a temporally oldest identifier of the set of media identifiers from the list of the set of media identifiers if the appended list of the set of media identifiers includes more than N media segment identifiers.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising:

reading a block header describing the block length; and

controlling a read loop of the live video stream according to the target duration and the block length to read the live video stream.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the live video stream is a digital living network alliance compliant video stream, and the media segments are HTTP live streaming (HLS) compliant media segments.

14. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor and memory together comprise a proxy communicatively coupled between a source of the live video stream and a sink of the coded live video stream.

15. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor and memory together comprise a proxy communicatively coupled between a source of the live video stream and a sink of the coded live video stream, the proxy comprising:

a segmenter module for performing the processor instructions for (a)-(k).

16. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor and memory together comprise a proxy communicatively coupled between a source of the live video stream and a sink of the coded live video stream, the proxy comprising:

a segmenter module for performing the processor instructions for (a)-(k);

a manifest manager for performing processor instructions for receiving a request for a manifest at an interval of the target duration, the manifest comprising the list of the set of media segment identifiers, and in response to the receiving of the request for the manifest at the interval of the target duration, publishing the manifest comprising the list of the set of media segment identifiers.

17. An apparatus for coding a live video stream, the video stream comprising a plurality of blocks, including a first block and a second block temporally following the first block, the apparatus comprising:

means for determining if a duration of a remaining portion of the first block is greater than or equal to a target duration, generating a media segment temporally spanning the target duration if the duration of the remaining portion of the first block is greater than or equal to the target duration, generating a media segment spanning the remaining portion of the first block if the duration of the remaining portion of the first block is less than the target duration, and updating a set of media segment identifiers to be published with an identifier of the generated media segment until no portion of the first block remains;

means for generating a further media segment from a temporally beginning portion of the second block, the further media segment temporally spanning no more than a difference between the target duration and a duration of a temporally last of the media segments generated from the first block; and

means for updating the set of media identifiers to be published with the identifier of the generated further media segment.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

means for determining if a duration of a remaining portion of the second block is greater than or equal to a target duration;

means for generating a still further media segment spanning the target duration if the duration of the remaining portion of the second block is greater than or equal to the target duration;

means for generating a still further media segment spanning the remaining portion of the first block if the duration of the remaining portion of the second block is less than the target duration; and

means for updating the set of media segment identifiers to be published with an identifier of the generated still further media segment.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

means for receiving a request for a manifest, the manifest comprising the list of the set of media segment identifiers; and

means, in response to the receiving of the request for the manifest at the interval of the target duration, for;

determining if the set of media segment identifiers includes media segment identifiers that have not been published;

if the set of media segment identifiers includes media segment identifiers that have not been published, publishing the manifest comprising the list of the set of media segment identifiers;

if the set of media segment identifiers does not include media segment identifiers that have not been published, generating an interim media segment temporally spanning from an end of a previously generated media segment to a time the manifest request is received; and

updating the set of media identifiers with the identifier of the generated interim media segment; and

publishing the manifest comprising the list of the media segment identifiers including the identifier of the generated interim media segment.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the live video stream is a digital living network alliance compliant video stream, and the media segments are HTTP live streaming (HLS) compliant media segments.