Glitch-free media streaming

• US 7,783,773 B2
• Filed: 07/24/2006
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Liu, Yi, Wu, Feng, Gao, Guangping
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu; Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khajuria; Shripal K
• Application Number:
  US11/459,600
• Publication Number:
  US 20080022005A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,492 Days
• Field of Search: 709/231
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

Glitch-free media streaming is provided by a client computing device (“client”) independent of whether a remote computing device (“host”) associated with media content provides real-time media content streaming services. Specifically, the client computing device (“client”) provides a user with real-time media content streaming services by establishing multiple connections to the host to read respective portions of the media content by sending byte-range transport protocol requests to the host. As the reading operations progress, the client evaluates transmit rates over respective ones of the connections in view of a real-time media content playback rate to regulate data flow into a streaming media buffer and provide the user with a consistent high-quality (glitch-free) streaming media presentation.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method with at least one client computing device with a media player and at least one remote computing device, comprising:

indexing media content by a search service;

evaluating text input by a user to return a URL listing of remote computing devices including at least one remote computing device hosting the indexed media content relating to the text input;

providing, by the at least one client computing device with a media player, media content streaming services to the user to stream the indexed media content from the at least one remote computing device, the providing being independent of whether the at least one remote computing device implements media content streaming services, the at least one client computing device with a media player providing the media content streaming services by;

establishing, multiple transport protocol connections to the at least one remote computing device;

tasking each connection of at least a subset of the multiple transport protocol connections to read a particular data segment of the indexed media content, the data segment identifying a respective offset into the indexed media content and a number of bytes to read;

managing connection tasks to regulate data input into a streaming media buffer for storing received data segments of the indexed media content;

removing data from the streaming media buffer for real-time playback to the user;

determining the number of bytes for each connection based on periodic determinations of the transmit rate on the connection; and

requesting overhead on each connection, byte-size of the media content, and bit-rate at which the indexed media content was encoded.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the multiple transport protocol connections are based on HTTP.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the establishing of the multiple transport protocol connections comprises:

estimating an optimal number of the multiple transport protocol connections to establish based on criteria for playback quality, data segment downloading, and buffer management; and

wherein the multiple transport protocol connections established is the optimal number of connections.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the managing of the connection tasks comprises evaluating an amount of the indexed media content received in the streaming media buffer and a rate at which data is being taken out of the streaming media buffer for real-time streaming playback to the user.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising, before establishing the multiple transport protocol connections:

requesting media content header information from the at least one remote computing device to identify a file size of the indexed media content, transmit times, request overhead, a bit-rate indicating a minimum streaming speed for real-time playback of media content to a user; and

wherein one or more sizes of the multiple data segment sizes are based on information determined from requesting the media content header information.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the managing of the connection tasks to regulate data input into the streaming media buffer further comprises:

monitoring each connection for completion of a respective current task; and

responsive to the monitoring;

(a) determining whether to task the connection at task completion to get a different data segment of the indexed media content, whether to task a different connection of the multiple transport protocol connections to read the different data segment, or whether to task a different connection of the multiple transport protocol connections to assist the connection in completing the respective current task by reading at least a portion of the data segment; and

(b) checking whether to change the respective data segment size for the connection based at least on buffer status, transmit times, and request overhead on the connection.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the determining further comprises:

comparing transmit speed of the connection to speed at which the media player is removing bytes from the streaming media buffer to determine if data gap will occur unless the next data segment is tasked to the different connection; and

checking for buffer overflow conditions.

8. A computer-implemented method with at least one client computing device with a media player and at least one remote computing device, comprising:

indexing media content by a search service;

evaluating text input by a user to return a URL listing of remote computing devices including the at least one remote computing device hosting the indexed media content relating to the text input;

requesting media content header information from the at least one remote computing device to identify file size of the indexed media content, transmit times, request overhead, and bit-rate indicating a minimum streaming speed for real-time playback of the indexed media content to the user;

establishing, by the client computing device with a media player, multiple transport protocol connections to the at least one remote computing device, the multiple transport protocol connections being established to download the indexed media content from the at least one remote computing device;

reading, by the client computing device, each bit of the indexed media content using at least a subset of the multiple transport protocol connections by;

assigning each connection of the at least a subset of the multiple transport protocol a respective task to read a respective data segment of the indexed media content, the respective data segment indicating a respective offset into the indexed media content and a respective data segment size;

monitoring each connection for completion of the respective task;

responsive to the monitoring;

(a) determining whether to again task the connection at completion of the respective task to get a next data segment at a next offset into the indexed media content, whether to task a different connection of the multiple transport protocol connections to read the next data segment, or whether to task a different connection of the multiple transport protocol connections to read at least a portion of the next data segment to assist the connection is completing the respective task; and

(b) checking whether to change the respective data segment size for the connection;

responsive to the assigning, receiving, by the client computing device, a data segment of the indexed media content into a buffer; and

removing, by the client computing device, data from the buffer for real-time playback to the user.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the multiple transport protocol connections are HTTP connections.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the establishing of the multiple transport protocol connections further comprises:

estimating an optimal number of the multiple transport protocol connections to establish based on criteria for playback quality, downloading data segments, and

streaming buffer management; and

wherein the multiple transport protocol connections established is the optimal number of connections.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the determining of whether to again task the connection at completion of the respective task to get the next data segment at the next offset or whether to task the different connection to read the next data segment further comprises:

comparing transmit speed of the connection to playback speed to determine if data underflow in the buffer will occur unless the next data segment is tasked to the different connection; and

checking for buffer overflow conditions.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the monitoring the connection is based on an amount of the indexed media content received in the buffer and a rate at which data is being taken out of the buffer for real-time streaming playback to the user.

13. A computing device with a media player comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising computer-program instructions for execution by the processor, the computer-program instructions for performing operations comprising;

indexing media content by a search service;

evaluating text input by a user to return a URL listing of remote computing devices including at least one remote computing device hosting the indexed media content relating to the text input;

identifying an optimal number of HTTP connections to establish between the computing device with a media player and the at least one remote computing device that is hosting the indexed media content,

the identifying being based at least on one or more of a current channel bandwidth on a connection to the at least one remote computing device, overhead of sending an HTTP request to the at least one remote computing device over the connection, speed at which portions of the indexed media content that have been downloaded to the computing device with a media player are removed from a buffer, size of the buffer, requesting media content header information to identify file size of the indexed media content, transmit times, bit-rate indicating a minimum streaming speed for real-time playback of the indexed media content;

establishing, the optimal number of HTTP connections to the at least one remote computing device;

configuring each of the HTTP connections to read a particular number of bytes of the indexed media content at a particular offset into the indexed media content, the particular number of bytes being less than a total size of the piece of the indexed media content; and

managing the indexed media content data segment download operations over each of the HTTP connections in view of fluctuating network bandwidth conditions to regulate data input into the buffer and provide a real-time media playback operation with a consistent stream of the indexed media content bits at a particular playback speed.

14. The computing device with a media player of claim 13, wherein the managing of the media content data segment download operations over each connection further comprises:

monitoring the connection for completion of a respective current task to download a data segment of the indexed media content; and

responsive to the monitoring;

(a) determining whether to task the connection at task completion to get a different data segment of the indexed media content, whether to task a different connection of the multiple transport protocol connections to read the different data segment, or whether to task a different connection of the multiple transport protocol connections to assist the connection in completing the respective current task by reading at least a portion of the data segment; and

(b) checking whether to change the respective data segment size for the connection based at least on buffer status, transmit time; and

(c) requesting overhead on the connection.

15. The computing device with a media player of claim 14, wherein the determining further comprises:

comparing transmit speed of the connection to speed at which the media player is removing bytes from the buffer to determine if data gap will occur unless the next data segment is tasked to the different connection; and

checking for buffer overflow conditions.

16. The computing device with a media player of claim 13, further comprising:

determining, for each connection, the particular number of bytes based on periodic determinations of the transmit rate on the connection; and

requesting overhead on the connection, byte-size of the indexed media content, and bit-rate at which the indexed media content was encoded.

17. The computing device with a media player of claim 16, wherein the determining of the particular number of bytes further comprises:

determining a distance between a current reading position in the indexed media content and a next reading position in the indexed media content;

if the distance is smaller than a threshold distance;

(a) increasing the particular number of bytes to include bytes associated with the next reading position; and

(b) adjusting request overhead time to reflect that the connection will be tasked to read a larger data segment size.