System and method for uninterrupted streaming

• US 7,925,771 B1
• Filed: 03/03/2004
• Issued: 04/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tahoe Research Limited (f/k/a Learndale Limited) (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: RealNetworks, Inc.
• Inventors: Boone, Haydon, Ping, Hai-Feng
• Primary Examiner(s): Duong; Oanh
• Application Number:
  US10/793,018
• Time in Patent Office: 2,596 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/203, 709/224, 709/227, 709/217, 709/219, 709/231, 709/238, 714/18, 714/1, 714/2, 714/4
• US Class Current: 709/231
• 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 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A streaming media presentation transmission error recovery system and network. In one embodiment, in the event of a connection failure to a selected server, an alternative “mirrored” server is selected to resume the transmission of a selected streaming media presentation. One embodiment of the present invention provides for transparent switching from an interrupted media data stream to a stream from a newly-created network connection by providing an overlap between media that has been received and the data that is received via the new connection.

Claims

1. A method of presenting streaming media data received from a remote data processing apparatus via a communications network, the method comprising:

presenting at least a portion of the streaming media data that is received via the communications network;

detecting an interruption to receiving the streaming media data, the interruption causing the reception to terminate;

reconnecting to the remote data processing apparatus via the communications network after detecting the interruption; and

presenting, without visible or audible interruption of the presentation of the at least the portion, the remainder of the streaming media data;

wherein the streaming media data comprises a plurality of discrete packets of media data that are presented in succession, each of the packets has an associated time marker that defines when said packet is to be presented relative to other packets from the data, and wherein each of the packets has an associated track, such that all packets associated with a particular track can be presented without regard to any packet associated with any other track; and

wherein reconnecting comprises providing time marker information for a plurality of packets received prior to the detected interruption, determining a largest time gap between successive data packets whose time markers are provided, selecting, for each track in the data, a time marker of the most current received packet out of those time markers provided,

determining, out of the selected time markers, which is the earliest, selecting a time to resume presentation by subtracting the value of the largest time gap from the earliest of the selected time markers, and requesting new streaming media data to start from the selected time.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the remainder of the streaming media data received after reconnection against streaming media data received before termination to determine a switchover time; and

switching presentation of the streaming media data received at the switchover time from that received before termination to that received after reconnection.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein analyzing to determine a switchover time comprises selecting a joint, such that the joint is a common point between successive packets in both the data received before termination and the data received after reconnection where the time markers on the successive packets are different.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the selected joint is the first common point where sufficient data has been received to present all of the packets with the latest time marker before the joint and all of the packets with the earliest time marker after the joint.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the switchover point is the first point in time after the interruption that the packets before and after the point have different time markers.

6. A device for increasing reliable presentation of streaming media data received via a processing apparatus over a data communications network, the device comprising a presentation and connection module that perform a method comprising:

rendering a presentation of streaming media data that is at least partially received via a first communications network;

detecting an interruption to the reception of the streaming media data, the interruption causing the reception of the streaming media data to end;

connecting to the processing apparatus in response to detecting the interruption;

receiving the remainder of the streaming media data; and

rendering a presentation of the remainder of the data;

wherein the streaming media data comprises a plurality of discrete packets of media data that are presented in succession,

wherein each of the packets has an associated time marker that defines when it is to be rendered relative to other packets from the data, and

wherein each of the packets has an associated track, such that all of the packets associated with a particular track can be rendered without regard to any packet associated with any other track; and

wherein connecting to the processing apparatus in response to detecting the interruption comprises providing time marker information for a plurality of packets received

prior to the detected interruption,

determining a largest time gap between successive data packets whose time markers are provided,

selecting, for each track in the data, a time marker of the most current received packet out of those time markers provided,

determining, out of the selected time markers, which is the earliest, selecting a time to resume presentation by subtracting the value of the largest time gap from the earliest of the selected time markers, and

requesting new streaming media data to start from the chosen time.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the presentation and connection module further performs the method comprising:

analyzing the remainder of the streaming media data against the streaming media data received before detection of the interruption to determine a switchover time; and

switching rending of the streaming media data at the switchover time from that received before detection of the interruption to that received after connecting to the processing apparatus in response to detecting the interruption.

8. A method of automatically restoring a failed streaming media connection, the method comprising:

connecting a client processing apparatus to a first streaming media server to receive a streaming media data;

detecting whether the transmission of the streaming media data being received via the data communications network can be sustained, or whether said transmission has delays exceeding a predetermined amount;

establishing a new network connection between the client processing apparatus and a reconnection streaming media server to resume reception of the streaming media data;

identifying a joint between information received via the new connection and information received prior to establishing the new connection;

rendering the streaming media data received through the first network connection; and

after the new streaming media connection is created, switching to rendering the streaming media data from the new network connection;

wherein the streaming media data comprises a plurality of discrete packets of media presentation data that are rendered in succession to display the streaming media data, each of the packets has an associated time marker that defines when it is to be rendered relative to other packets from the presentation, and each of the packets has an associated track, such that all of the packets associated with a particular track can be rendered without regard to any packet associated with any other track; and

wherein the switching to rendering the streaming media data from the new network connection comprises providing time marker information for a plurality of packets received prior to via the first network connection, determining the largest time gap between successive data packets whose timer markers are provided, selecting, for each track, a time marker of the most current received packet out of those time markers provided, determining, out of the selected time markers, which is the earliest, choosing a time to resume rendering by subtracting the value of the largest time gap from the earliest of the selected time marker, and requesting new streaming media data to start from the chosen time.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing instructions which, when executed, perform the method comprising:

creating a first network connection to a server via a data communications network to receive streaming media data;

determining that the first network connection cannot be sustained or that a delay exists in the reception of the media data that exceeds a predetermined amount;

creating a second network connection to resume reception of the streaming media data;

identifying a joint between information received from via the new connection and information received prior to establishing the new connection;

further comprising instructions which, when executed, perform rendering the streaming media data received through the first network connection, and after the new streaming media connection is created, switching to rendering the streaming media data from the new network connection;

still further comprising instructions which, when executed, perform determining a connection time, and waiting until the remaining rendering time of the streaming media data received via the first network connection is the same as the desired connection time before creating a new connection;

wherein the streaming media data comprises a plurality of discrete packets of media presentation data that are rendered in succession to display the streaming media data, each of the packets has an associated time marker that defines when it is to be presented relative to other packets from the streaming media data, and each of the packets has an associated track, such that all of the packets associated with a particular track can be rendered without regard to any packet associated with any other track; and

still further comprising instructions which, when executed, perform the actions of providing time marker information for a plurality of packets received via the first network connection, determining the largest time gap between successive data packets whose time marker are provided, selecting, for each track in the presentation, a time marker of the most current received packet out of those time markers provided, determining, out of the selected time markers, which is the earliest, choosing a time to resume rending by subtracting the value of the largest time gap from the earliest of the selected time markers, and requesting new streaming media data to start from the chosen time.

10. A method of presenting streaming media data via a communications network, the method comprising:

rendering streaming media data via a first network connection;

detecting an interruption to receiving the streaming media data, the interruption causing the first network connection to end;

providing a server information list containing connection information for at least one streaming media server where a new connection to the streaming media data can be established;

selecting a server from the list;

determining a desired connection time in which said new connection is expected to be established;

determining for how much remaining time the streaming media data received from the first network connection can be rendered before a first portion, of streaming media data already received from said first network connection is exhausted;

waiting until said remaining time is the same as said desired connection time before creating the new network connection;

creating the new network connection with the selected server in response to detecting the interruption;

receiving a second portion of the streaming media data; and

rendering second portion of the streaming media data.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the streaming media data comprises a plurality of discrete packets of media data that are rendered in succession to display the data;

each of the packets has an associated time marker that defines when it is to be rendered relative to other packets from the presentation; and

each of the packets has an associated track, such that all of the packets associated with a particular track can be rendered without regard to any packet associated with any other track.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein creating a new network connection comprises:

providing time marker information for a plurality of packets received prior to the detected interruption;

determining a largest time gap between successive data packets whose time markers are provided;

selecting, for each track in the presentation, a time marker of the most current received packet out of those time markers provided;

determining, out of the selected time markers, which is the earliest;

choosing a time to resume rendering by subtracting the value of the largest time gap from the earliest of the selected time markers; and

requesting new streaming media data to start from the chosen time.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

analyzing the steaming media data received over the new network connection against the data already received from the first network connection to determine a switchover time; and

switching rendering of the data at the switchover time from that received via the first connection to that being received via the new connection.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein analyzing to determine a switchover time comprises selecting a joint, such that the joint is a common point between successive packets in both the data received before termination and the data received after reconnection where the time markers on the successive packets are different.