Method for caching of media files to reduce delivery cost
First Claim
1. A method of improving an efficiency of transmitting a continuous media program on-demand to multiple consumers, wherein the media program is transmitted from at least one regional storage location serving a corresponding plurality of consumers and a remote storage location in communication with the at least one regional storage location, in response to a plurality of consumer requests, the method comprising:
- (a) splitting the program into a prefix and a suffix as a function of at least
1) costs associated with storing the prefix at the at least one regional storage location and
2) costs of transmitting the suffix from the remote storage location;
(b) storing the prefix in the at least one regional storage location;
(c) storing the suffix in the remote storage location;
(d) transmitting the prefix to the plurality of consumers from the corresponding at least one regional storage location; and
(e) transmitting the suffix to the plurality of consumers from the remote storage location.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Improvement on delivery of continuous media programs, such as video, divides the programs into prefixes and suffixes of data. One of these groups, or other groups associated with alternate on-demand data streaming, may be stored at a remote location, while the other of the groups may be stored at a plurality of regional locations. Accordingly, when the media program is ordered by a plurality of clients, a portion of the program will be broadcast from the regional server, while the other portion of the program will be transmitted from the remote server. The prefixes and suffixes are chosen so as to maximize the efficiency of data transfer taking into account the cost of storing the data as well as bandwidth costs.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of improving an efficiency of transmitting a continuous media program on-demand to multiple consumers, wherein the media program is transmitted from at least one regional storage location serving a corresponding plurality of consumers and a remote storage location in communication with the at least one regional storage location, in response to a plurality of consumer requests, the method comprising:
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(a) splitting the program into a prefix and a suffix as a function of at least
1) costs associated with storing the prefix at the at least one regional storage location and
2) costs of transmitting the suffix from the remote storage location;
(b) storing the prefix in the at least one regional storage location;
(c) storing the suffix in the remote storage location;
(d) transmitting the prefix to the plurality of consumers from the corresponding at least one regional storage location; and
(e) transmitting the suffix to the plurality of consumers from the remote storage location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of reducing operation costs of an on-demand media file delivery system, wherein the media file is transmitted, from at least one of a plurality of regional storage locations and a remote storage location located remotely from the plurality of regional storage locations, in response to a plurality of client requests, the method comprising:
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(a) splitting the media file into a fixed prefix and a fixed suffix;
(b) storing the prefix at the at least one regional storage location;
(c) storing the suffix at the remote storage location;
(d) transmitting the prefix to the plurality of clients from the at least one regional storage location; and
(e) transmitting the suffix to the plurality of clients from the remote storage location. - View Dependent Claims (13, 20)
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14. A method of improving an efficiency of transmitting a plurality of continuous media program on-demand to multiple consumers, wherein the media programs are transmitted from at least one regional server serving a corresponding plurality of consumers and a remote server in communication with the at least one regional server, in response to a plurality of consumer requests, the method comprising:
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(a) splitting the programs into prefixes and a suffixes as a function of at least
1) costs associated with storing the prefixes at the at least one regional storage location and
2) costs of transmitting the suffix from the remote storage location;
(b) storing some of the prefixes in the at least one regional server;
(c) storing some of the suffixes in the remote server;
(d) transmitting the prefix of a requested media program to a plurality of requesting consumers from the corresponding at least one regional server; and
(e) transmitting the suffix of the requested media program to the plurality of requesting consumers from the remote server. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification