Peer-to-peer aided live video sharing system

• US 7,733,808 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2006
• Issued: 06/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Luo, Chong, Tang, Jian, Li, Jiang, Lou, Jian-Guang, Cai, Hua, Hu, Yusuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Qureshi; Afsar M.
• Application Number:
  US11/558,878
• Publication Number:
  US 20080112315A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,306 Days
• Field of Search: 370230-260, 370/395.2, 370/329, 370/311, 370/338, 370/335, 370/351, 725/13, 725/24, 725/135, 725148-150, 709/206, 375/E7.019, 348/E7.071, 348/E7.069, 348/E7.083
• US Class Current: 370/256
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1072 Discovery involving ranked list compilation of candidate peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1085 involving dynamic management of active down- or uploading connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21 Server components or server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23 Processing of content or additional data; Elementary server operations; Server middleware
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2743 Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Video data from an upload client is received at a hosting node. A request from a download client is received at a bootstrapping node to receive the video data. The download client to receive the video data directly from the hosting node when the hosting node is below a threshold, wherein the threshold is based at least in part on the maximum number of download clients the hosting node can stream to simultaneously. The download client to receive the video data from peers in a peer-to-peer overlay when the hosting node above the threshold.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a prefetch request for a particular packet of a video stream at a peer from one or more partners of the peer, wherein the one or more partners comprise a subset of peers of a peer-to-peer overlay;

receiving a packet of the video stream at the peer;

pushing the packet, by the peer, to an individual partner of the one or more partners whose associated prefetch request matches the packet; and

updating a local copy of the individual partner'"'"'s buffer map at the peer after pushing the packet, wherein the buffer map indicates packets of the video stream available in a partner packet queue.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending individual prefetch requests of the peer to the one or more partners.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising pulling a needed packet from the individual partner or another individual partner of the one or more partners, by the peer, when a pull condition is triggered.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a join request to a bootstrapping node to join the peer-to-peer overlay by the peer;

receiving peer information regarding one or more peers of the peer-to-peer overlay from the bootstrapping node; and

joining the peer-to-peer overlay by the peer.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the subset of peers in response to a loss of communication with the individual partner or another individual partner of the one or more partners.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the subset of peers in response to an individual peer entering or leaving the peer-to-peer overlay.

7. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer readable storage media including computer readable instructions that, when executed, perform a method comprising:

receiving, at a peer, a prefetch request associated with a video stream from one or more partners of the peer, wherein the one or more partners comprise a subset of peers of a peer-to-peer overlay;

receiving a packet of the video stream at the peer;

pushing the packet, by the peer, to at least one partner of the one or more partners whose associated prefetch request matches the packet; and

updating a local copy of the at least one partner'"'"'s buffer map at the peer after pushing the packet, wherein the buffer map indicates packets of the video stream available in a partner packet queue.

8. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 7, further comprising sending individual prefetch requests of the peer to the one or more partners.

9. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 7, further comprising pulling a needed packet from the at least one partner or at least one other partner of the one or more partners, by the peer, when a pull condition is triggered.

10. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 7, further comprising:

sending a join request to a bootstrapping node to join the peer-to-peer overlay by the peer;

receiving peer information regarding one or more peers of the peer-to-peer overlay from the bootstrapping node; and

joining the peer-to-peer overlay by the peer.

11. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 7, further comprising updating the subset of peers in response to a loss of communication with the at least one partner or at least one other partner of the one or more partners.

12. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 7, further comprising updating the subset of peers in response to an individual peer entering or leaving the peer-to-peer overlay.

13. A system comprising:

one or more computing devices; and

at least one subsystem comprising individual nodes implemented by at least one of the one or more computing devices, the at least one subsystem configured to;

receive, at a peer, a prefetch request associated with a video stream from one or more partners of the peer, wherein the one or more partners comprise a subset of peers of a peer-to-peer overlay;

receive a packet of the video stream at the peer;

push the packet, by the peer, to at least one partner of the one or more partners whose associated prefetch request matches the packet; and

update a local copy of the at least one partner'"'"'s buffer map at the peer after pushing the packet, wherein the buffer map indicates packets of the video stream available in a partner packet queue.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one subsystem is further configured to send individual prefetch requests of the peer to the one or more partners.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one subsystem is further configured to pull a needed packet from the at least one partner or at least one other partner of the one or more partners, by the peer, when a pull condition is triggered.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one subsystem is further configured to:

send a join request to at least one node of the individual nodes to join the peer-to-peer overlay by the peer;

receive peer information regarding one or more peers of the peer-to-peer overlay from the at least one node; and

join the peer-to-peer overlay by the peer.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one subsystem is further configured to update the subset of peers in response to a loss of communication with the at least one partner or at least one other partner of the one or more partners.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one subsystem is further configured to update the subset of peers in response to an individual peer entering or leaving the peer-to-peer overlay.