Distribution method, preferably applied in a streaming system

• US 8,078,946 B2
• Filed: 11/22/2010
• Issued: 12/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Codemate A/S
• Inventors: Alstrup, Stephen, Rauhe, Theis
• Primary Examiner(s): Ton, David
• Application Number:
  US12/951,263
• Publication Number:
  US 20110066749A1
• Time in Patent Office: 386 Days
• Field of Search: 709/230, 709/231, 709/205, 380/28, 370/256, 714/784, 714/701, 714/761
• US Class Current: 714/784
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0057 Block codes H04L1/0061, H04L1/0064 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1091 Interfacing with client-server systems or between P2P systems

Abstract

The invention relates to a data live streaming system comprising at least one data live streaming broadcaster LSB and at least two live streaming recipients LSR, said at least two live streaming recipients LSR forming at least a part of a peer-to-peer streaming network and said at least two live streaming recipients LSR each comprising means for generation of peer-to peer streaming to other live streaming recipients LSR of said peer-to peer streaming network and wherein said peer-to peer streaming to other streaming recipients LSR comprises loss resilient code representations of data from said at least one live streaming broadcaster LSB.

Claims

1. A data streaming system comprising

at least one data streaming broadcaster (LSB), and

at least two streaming recipients (LSR),

said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) forming at least a part of a peer-to-peer streaming network;

wherein said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) each comprise a means for generating peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR) of said peer-to-peer streaming network and wherein said peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR) comprises loss resilient code representations of data from said at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB);

wherein at least one of said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) comprises a multicast receiver for receiving by multicast delivery loss resilient code representations of said data from said at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB).

2. The data streaming system according to claim 1, wherein each of said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) provides at least one unique partial encoded representation (UPR) of Input Data (I) by said means for generating peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR).

3. The data streaming system according to claim 2, wherein at least two of said unique partial encoded representations (UPR) collectively form a complete representation of the Input Data (I).

4. The data streaming system according to claim 1, wherein said means for generating peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR) substantially provides M unique partial encoded representations (UPR) of Input Data (I) and wherein the streamed data from the streaming broadcaster (LSB) is fully or substantially represented by a subset of N unique partial encoded representations (UPR).

5. The data streaming system according to claim 1, wherein the streamed data from the at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB) is fully represented by a subset of N unique partial encoded representations (UPR) encoded by Reed-Solomon based loss resilient code segments.

6. The data streaming system according to claim 1, wherein the streamed data from the streaming broadcaster (LSB) is substantially represented by a subset of N unique partial encoded representations (UPR) encoded by LT-based based loss resilient code segments.

7. The data streaming system according to claim 1, wherein said loss resilient code representations of data are provided in frames.

8. The data streaming system according to claim 7, wherein said frames comprise time frames substantially produced and transmitted sequentially by said streaming broadcaster (LSB).

9. The data streaming system according to claim 1, wherein the streaming of data from said at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB) is structured in consecutive frames and wherein substantially each of the frames is initiated by an initial transmission of data representations to said at least two streaming recipients (LSR), and wherein said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) stream said data representations or derivatives thereof to others of the streaming recipients (LSR) as loss resilient code segments, and wherein the others of the streaming recipients (LSR) gather a number N of unique loss resilient code segments and regenerate said frames transmitted from said at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB) as a streaming signal.

10. The data streaming system according to claim 1, wherein said data comprises at least one of video and audio streams.

11. A network comprising

at least one Input Data (I) broadcaster (IB), and

a plurality of peers (P),

said plurality of peers (P) transforming Input representative data (IRD) from said at least one Input broadcaster (IB) into a first part of a plurality of M unique partial encoded representations (UPR) of Input Data (I),

at least one of said at least one Input Data (I) broadcaster (IB) transforming Input representative data (IRD) from said at least one Input broadcaster (IB) into a second part of said plurality of M unique partial encoded representations (UPR) of Input Data (I),

wherein a plurality of code subsets (W1, W2, W3, . . . ) of said M unique partial encoded representations comprises N different unique partial encoded representations (UPR) of said Input Data (I), each of the code subsets (W1, W2, W3, . . . ) representing said Input Data (I) and where N is less than M−

1.

12. The network according to claim 11, wherein each of said plurality of peers (P) produces one of said M unique partial encoded representations (UPR) of Input Data (I).

13. The network according to claim 11, wherein at least one of said code subsets (W1, W2, W3 . . . ) represents an encoded version of said Input Data (I).

14. The network according to claim 11, wherein at least one of said code subsets (W1, W2, W3 . . . ) is encoded by means of LT based codes.

15. The network according to claim 11, wherein at least one of said code subsets (W1, W2, W3 . . . ) is encoded by means of Reed-Solomon based codes.

16. The network according to claim 11, wherein said network further comprises at least two recipient peers (RP), the at least two recipient peers (RP) gathering at least one of said code subsets (W1, W2, W3 . . . ) and decoding the at least one of said code subsets (W1, W2, W3 . . . ) into data corresponding to the encoded data.

17. The network according to claim 16, wherein the gathering performed by said at least two recipient peers (RP) is performed on the basis of a request to at least one of the other peers.

18. The network according to claim 16, wherein the gathering performed by said at least two recipient peers (RP) is performed on the basis of a push transmission performed by at least one of the plurality of peers (P).

19. The network according to claim 11, wherein at least one of said plurality of peers (P) forms a recipient peer (RP).

20. The network according to claim 11, wherein said input representative data (IRD) is established at least partly by at least two intermediate peers (IP).

21. The network according to claim 20, wherein said intermediate peers (IP) comprise further intermediate processing steps adapted for establishment of input representative data (IRD).

22. The network according to claim 11, wherein at least one of said plurality of peers (P) forms an intermediate peer (IP).

23. The network according to claim 11, wherein the total number of peers (P) is greater than 5, and the number of intermediate peers (IP) is between ⅕

and 1/100 of the total number of peers (P).

24. The network according to claim 11, wherein said input representative data (IRD) is transmitted from said broadcaster (IB) to at least two intermediate peers (IP).

25. The network according to claim 24, wherein said at least two intermediate peers (IP) receive only a partial representation of said Input Data (I).

26. The network according to claim 11, wherein the unique partial encoded representations (UPR) are generated by a plurality of different peers from the plurality of peers (P).

27. The network according to claim 11, wherein the uniqueness of the unique partial encoded representations (UPR) are ensured by producing the partial encoded representations (UPR) by different peers of the plurality of peers (P).

28. The network according to claim 11, wherein at least one peer of the plurality of peers (P) collects and transforms input representative data (IRD) into at least one unique partial encoded representation by a pull process.

29. The network according to claim 11, wherein at least one peer of the plurality of peers (P) collects and transforms input representative data (IRD) into at least one unique partial encoded representation by a push process.

30. The network according to claim 11, wherein said Input Data (I) is transmitted from the at least one Input Data (I) broadcaster (IB) on a real-time basis.

31. The network according to claim 11, wherein said Input Data (I) is transmitted from the at least one Input Data (I) broadcaster (IB) on a real-time basis in frames.

32. The network according to claim 11, wherein said network is a video streaming network.

33. The network according to claim 11, wherein said network is performing video-streaming on demand.

34. The network according to claim 11, wherein said network is performing live-video streaming.

35. The network according to claim 11, wherein said network is formed by the Internet and said plurality of peers (P) comprises computers communicating with the Internet.

36. The network according to claim 11, wherein at least one of said plurality of peers (P) comprises a computer transforming input representative data (IRD) into at least one unique partial encoded representation (UPR) of Input Data (I) without gathering and utilizing partial encoded representation (UPR) of Input Data (I) produced by others of the plurality of peers (P).

37. The network according to claim 11, wherein at least one of said plurality of peers (P) switches between:

at least one mode, where the at least one of said plurality of peers (P) both produces at least one partial encoded representation (UPR) and gathers partial encoded representations produced by others of the plurality of peers (P) to obtain at least one code subset (W1, W2, W3,) and decodes the at least one code subset (W1, W2, W3,); and

at least one idle mode, where the at least one of said plurality of peers (P) acts solely or primarily as a producer of at least one partial encoded representation (UPR).

38. The network according to claim 11, wherein the plurality of peers (P) are implicitly or explicitly defined in the input data (I).

39. The network according to claim 11, wherein the encoded input data (I) is associated with peer defining data.

40. The network according to claim 11, wherein said unique partial encoded representations (UPR) comprise loss resilient codes.

41. The network according to claim 11, wherein said Input Data (I) comprises video streaming, said broadcaster (IB) comprises a video streaming broadcaster, and at least two of said plurality of peers (P) comprise recipients of video streams.

42. A method of streaming data in a streaming system comprising at least one data streaming broadcaster (LSB) and at least two streaming recipients (LSR), the method comprising

forming at least a part of a peer-to-peer streaming network with said at least two streaming recipients (LSR), and

generating peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR) of said peer-to-peer streaming network with said at least two streaming recipients (LSR),

wherein said peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR) is established by means of loss resilient code representations of data from said at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB);

and

generating multicast streaming of content to the streaming recipients (LSR) of said peer-to-peer streaming network wherein said multicast streaming of content is established by means of loss resilient code representations of data from said at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB).

43. A method of distributing input data (I) in a network comprising at least one Input Data (I) broadcaster (IB) and a plurality of peers (P), the method comprising

transforming, with said plurality of peers (P), Input representative data (IRD) from said at least one Input broadcaster (IB) into a first part of a plurality of M unique partial encoded representations (UPR) of the Input Data (I),

transforming Input representative data (IRD) from said at least one Input broadcaster (IB) into a second part of said plurality of M unique partial encoded representations (UPR) of Input Data (I),

wherein a plurality of code subsets (W1, W2, W3, . . . ) of said M unique partial encoded representations comprises N different unique partial encoded representations (UPR) of said Input Data (I), each subset (W1, W2, W3, . . . ) representing said Input Data (I) and where N is less than M−

1.

44. A data streaming system comprising

at least one data streaming broadcaster (LSB), and

at least two streaming recipients (LSR),

said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) forming at least a part of a peer-to-peer streaming network,

wherein said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) each comprise a means for generating peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR) of said peer-to-peer streaming network, said peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR) comprises loss resilient code representations of data from said at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB), and

wherein at least one of said at least one data streaming broadcaster (LSB) comprises a means for generating multicast streaming of content to streaming recipients (LSR) of said peer-to-peer streaming network, said multicast streaming of content to streaming recipients (LSR) comprises loss resilient code representations of data from said at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB), and

wherein said means for generating peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR) and said means for generating multicast streaming of content to streaming recipients (LSR), substantially provide collectively M unique partial encoded representations (UPR) of Input Data (I), and wherein the number M substantially corresponds to the number of streaming recipients (LSR).

45. The data streaming system according to claim 44, wherein each of said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) provides at least one unique partial encoded representation (UPR) of Input Data (I) by said means for generating peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR).

46. The data streaming system according to claim 45, wherein at least two of said unique partial encoded representations (UPR) collectively form a complete representation of the Input Data (I).

47. The data streaming system according to claim 44, wherein the streamed data from the streaming broadcaster (LSB) is fully or substantially represented by a subset of N unique partial encoded representations (UPR).

48. The data streaming system according to claim 44, wherein the streamed data from the at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB) is fully represented by a subset of N unique partial encoded representations (UPR) encoded by Reed-Solomon based loss resilient code segments.

49. The data streaming system according to claim 44, wherein the streamed data from the streaming broadcaster (LSB) is substantially represented by a subset of N unique partial encoded representations (UPR) encoded by LT-based based loss resilient code segments.

50. The data streaming system according to claim 44, wherein at least one of said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) regenerates the encoded data from said streaming broadcaster (LSB) by decoding a number N unique partial encoded representations (UPR) of data, and wherein at least one of said N unique partial encoded representations (UPR) is generated by the other streaming recipients (LSR).

51. The data streaming system according to claim 44, wherein the streaming of data from said at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB) is structured in consecutive frames and wherein substantially each of the frames is initiated by an initial transmission of data representations to said at least two streaming recipients (LSR), and wherein said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) stream said data representations or derivatives thereof to others of the streaming recipients (LSR) as loss resilient code segments, and wherein the others of the streaming recipients (LSR) gather a number N of unique loss resilient code segments and regenerate said frames transmitted from said at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB) as a streaming signal.

52. The data streaming system according to claim 44, wherein said peer-to-peer streaming network comprises a grid based system.

53. The data streaming system according to claim 44, wherein said data comprises at least one of video and audio streams.

54. A data streaming system comprising

at least one data streaming broadcaster (LSB), and

at least two streaming recipients (LSR),

said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) forming at least a part of a peer-to-peer streaming network,

wherein said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) each comprise a means for generating peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR) of said peer-to-peer streaming network, and wherein said peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR) comprises loss resilient code representations of data transmitted by said at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB), and

wherein at least one of said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) regenerates the encoded data from said streaming broadcaster (LSB) by decoding a number N unique partial encoded representations (UPR) of data and wherein at least one of said N unique partial encoded representations (UPR) is generated by the other streaming recipients (LSR) and at least one other of said N unique partial encoded representations (UPR) is received by multicast delivery.

55. The data streaming system according to claim 54, wherein each of said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) provides at least one unique partial encoded representation (UPR) of Input Data (I) by said means for generating peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR).

56. The data streaming system according to claim 54, wherein at least two of said unique partial encoded representations (UPR) collectively form a complete representation of the Input Data (I).

57. The data streaming system according to claim 54, wherein said means for generating peer-to-peer streaming of content to other streaming recipients (LSR) substantially provides M unique partial encoded representations (UPR) of Input Data (I), and wherein the streamed data from the streaming broadcaster (LSB) is fully or substantially represented by a subset of N unique partial encoded representations (UPR).

58. The data streaming system according to claim 54, wherein the number M substantially corresponds to the number of streaming recipients (LSR).

59. The data streaming system according to claim 54, wherein the streamed data from the at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB) is fully represented by a subset of N unique partial encoded representations (UPR) encoded by Reed-Solomon based loss resilient code segments.

60. The data streaming system according to claim 54, wherein the streamed data from the at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB) is substantially represented by a subset of N unique partial encoded representations (UPR) encoded by LT-based based loss resilient code segments.

61. The data streaming system according to claim 54, wherein the streaming of data from said at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB) is structured in consecutive frames and wherein substantially each of the frames is initiated by an initial transmission of data representations to said at least two streaming recipients (LSR), and wherein said at least two streaming recipients (LSR) stream said data representations or derivatives thereof to others of the streaming recipients (LSR) as loss resilient code segments, and wherein the others of the streaming recipients (LSR) gather a number N of unique loss resilient code segments and regenerate said frames transmitted from said at least one streaming broadcaster (LSB) as a streaming signal.

62. The data streaming system according to claim 54, wherein said peer-to-peer streaming network comprises a grid based system.

63. The data streaming system according to claim 54, wherein said data comprises at least one of video and audio streams.

64. A method of receiving data from a broadcaster in a network, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of peer-to-peer delivered loss resilient code representations of said data,

receiving a plurality of multicast delivered loss resilient code representations of said data,

regenerating said data from said broadcaster by decoding a combination of said plurality of peer-to-peer delivered loss resilient code representations and said plurality of multicast delivered loss resilient code representations.

65. A network comprising at least one multicast stream of loss resilient data and a plurality of peer-to-peer transmitted loss resilient data, wherein a combination of a part of the loss resilient data from the multicast stream with a part of the plurality of peer-to-peer transmitted loss resilient data forms a data from a broadcaster.