Method for streaming multimedia content

• US 8,166,154 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2005
• Issued: 04/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Choi, Kyu-Tae
• Primary Examiner(s): Bates, Kevin
• Assistant Examiner(s): MCADAMS, BRAD
• Application Number:
  US11/180,237
• Publication Number:
  US 20060075453A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,477 Days
• Field of Search: 709/231, 709/238, 709/224, 725/135
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/24 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth, upstream requests monitoring of server performance or load G06F11/34; arrangements for observation, testing or troubleshooting for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26208 the scheduling operation being performed under constraints
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• 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 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

Streaming multimedia content from a content server to client, user multimedia devices (UMDs) connected to the content server through a network includes the steps of monitoring storage states, of UMDs connected to the network, for preset multimedia content, and automatically transmitting a starting block of the content to any UMD not yet storing the block. Tasks preparatory to streaming are advantageously off-loaded to the client side and distributed among UMDs, to realize reduced bandwidth and delay and to conserve on storage capacity of a UMD.

Claims

1. A method for streaming over a network, from a content server to user multimedia devices (UMDs) connected to the content server through, said network, the method comprising the acts of:

1) monitoring storage states of the connected UMDs for a preset multimedia content including whether or not the connected UMDs contain a starting block and indexing blocks of the preset multimedia content, wherein the preset multimedia content includes the starting block being an initially reproduced part of the preset multimedia content, multimedia blocks containing video and voice information and the indexing blocks containing position information of the multimedia blocks and the multimedia blocks and the indexing blocks are disposed alternately; and

2) if a UMD of said UMDs does not store the starting block of said preset multimedia content, transmitting, automatically and without user intervention, the starting block to said UMD to permit reproduction of the preset multimedia content by the UMD without initial buffering;

wherein each of the indexing blocks that is alternately disposed represents a part reproduced prior to reproduction of a corresponding multimedia block in a fast forward or reverse mode and containing position information about the corresponding multimedia block is requested by and received through P2P communication and is reproduced only in a fast forward or reverse mode,

wherein said preset multimedia content is a single multimedia content file in which the multimedia blocks and the indexing blocks are consecutively and alternately disposed; and

wherein the act

     1) includes the acts of;

a) requesting of said UMDs content information including information regarding whether or not the starting block and the indexing blocks of the preset multimedia content are stored in said UMDs; and

b) detecting an indexing distribution state among the UMDs based on the content information received as a result of the act a).

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the act of receiving, in response to said requesting, at least some of said content information, said detecting occurring based on the content information received in said receiving.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein all of the content information requested in the act a) is received in said receiving.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said detecting occurs by examining said content information received in said receiving.

5. A content server comprising a processor;

and a memory;

for streaming over a network to user multimedia devices (UMDs) connected to the content server through said network, said server being configured for performing the acts of;

1) monitoring storage states of the connected UMDs for a preset multimedia content including whether or not the UMDs contain a starting block and indexing blocks of the preset multimedia content without receiving a request from the UMDs, wherein the preset multimedia content includes the starting block being an initially reproduced part of the preset multimedia content, multimedia blocks containing video and voice information and the indexing blocks containing position information of the multimedia blocks and the multimedia blocks and the indexing blocks are disposed alternately;

2) if a UMD of said UMDs does not store the starting block of said preset multimedia content, transmitting, automatically and without user intervention, only the starting block to the UMD to permit reproduction of the preset multimedia content by the UMD without initial buffering; and

3) if the UMD of said UMDs requests the preset multimedia content, authorizing another of said UMDs storing the indexing block of the preset multimedia content to transmit in a P2P communication the indexing block to the content-requesting UMD and transmitting only the multimedia blocks of the preset multimedia content to the content-requesting UMD, the server being configured to perform at least one of the acts

     1) and

     3) automatically and without user intervention,

wherein each of the indexing blocks that is alternately disposed represents a part reproduced prior to reproduction of a corresponding multimedia block in a fast forward or reverse mode and containing position information, about the corresponding multimedia block is reproduced only in a fast forward or reverse mode, and wherein said preset multimedia content is a single multimedia content file in which the multimedia blocks and the indexing blocks are consecutively and alternately disposed.

6. The computer-based method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the act 1) includes the acts of:

a) requesting of said UMDs content information including information regarding whether or not the starting block and the indexing blocks of the preset multimedia content are stored in said UMDs; and

b) detecting an indexing distribution state among the UMDs based on the content information received from the UMDs.

7. The computer-based method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the act 3) includes the acts of:

c) transmitting, to said content-requesting UMD, availability information including information regarding one or more of said UMDs storing the indexing block of said preset multimedia content; and

d) authorizing at least one of the one or more UMDs to transmit said indexing block, of said preset multimedia content in response to a transmission request of said content-requesting UMD, said authorizing entailing transmitting session information including information regarding said content-requesting UMD to the at least one UMD included in the availability information.

8. A content server for streaming over a network to user multimedia devices (UMDs) connected to the content server through said network, said server being configured for performing the acts of:

1) monitoring storage states of the connected UMDs for a preset multimedia content including whether or not the UMDs contain a starting block and indexing blocks of the preset multimedia content without receiving a request from the UMDs, wherein the preset multimedia content includes the starting block being an initially reproduced part of the preset multimedia content, multimedia blocks containing video and voice information and the indexing blocks containing position information of the multimedia blocks and the multimedia blocks and the indexing blocks are disposed alternately;

2) if a UMD of said UMDs does not store the starting block of said preset multimedia content, transmitting, automatically and without user intervention, only the starting block to the UMD to permit reproduction of the preset multimedia content by the UMD without initial buffering; and

3) if the UMD of said UMDs requests the preset multimedia content, authorizing another of said UMDs storing the indexing block of the preset multimedia content to transmit in a P2P communication the indexing block to the content-requesting UMD and transmitting only the multimedia blocks of the preset multimedia content to the content-requesting UMD, the server being configured to perform at least one of the acts

     1) and

     3) automatically and without user intervention,

wherein each of the indexing blocks that is alternately disposed represents a part reproduced prior to reproduction of a corresponding multimedia block in a fast forward or reverse mode and containing position information about the corresponding multimedia block is reproduced only in a fast forward or reverse mode, and

wherein said preset multimedia content is a single multimedia content file in which the multimedia blocks and the indexing blocks are consecutively and alternately disposed.

9. The server of claim 8, wherein the act 1) includes the acts of:

a) requesting of said UMDs content information including information regarding whether or not the starting block and the indexing blocks of the preset multimedia content are stored in said UMDs; and

b) detecting an indexing distribution state among the UMDs based on the content information received from the UMDs.

10. The server of claim 8, wherein the act 3) includes the acts of:

c) transmitting, to said content-requesting UMD, availability information including information regarding one or more of said UMDs storing the indexing block of said preset multimedia content; and

d) authorizing at least one of the one or more UMDs to transmit said indexing block of said preset multimedia content in response to a transmission request of said content-requesting UMD by transmitting session information including information regarding said content-requesting UMD to the at least one UMD included in the availability information.

11. A computer software product comprising machine executable code embodied within a non-transitory computer-readable medium and being operative to cause a machine to provide streaming over a network, from a content server to user multimedia devices (UMDs) connected to the content server through said network, said product comprising instructions for:

1) monitoring storage states of the connected UMDs for a preset multimedia content including whether or not the connected UMDs contain a starting block and indexing blocks of the preset multimedia content without receiving a request from the UMDs, wherein the preset multimedia content includes the starting block being an initially reproduced part of the preset multimedia content, multimedia blocks containing video and voice information, and the indexing blocks containing position information of the multimedia blocks and the multimedia blocks and the indexing blocks are disposed alternately; and

2) if a UMD of said UMDs does not store the starting block of said preset multimedia content, transmitting, automatically and without user intervention, the starting block to said UMD, wherein each of the indexing blocks that is alternately disposed represents a part reproduced prior to reproduction of a corresponding multimedia block in a fast forward or reverse mode and containing position information about the corresponding multimedia block is requested by and received through P2P communication and is reproduced only in a fast forward or reverse mode, and

wherein said preset multimedia content is a single multimedia content file in which the multimedia block and the indexing blocks are consecutively and alternately disposed; and

wherein said monitoring includes;

a) requesting of said UMDs content information including information regarding whether or not the starting block and the indexing blocks of the preset multimedia content are stored in said UMDs; and

b) detecting an indexing distribution state among the UMDs based on the content information received as a result of said requesting.

12. A user multimedia device (UMD) comprising a processor;

and a memory;

for receiving, from a content server, streamed content over a network, said device being configured for;

receiving requests from the content server whether or not a starting block and indexing blocks of a preset multimedia content is contained in the UMD, wherein the preset multimedia content includes the starting block being an initially reproduced part of the preset multimedia content, multimedia blocks containing video and voice information and the indexing blocks containing position information of the multimedia blocks and the multimedia blocks and the indexing blocks are disposed alternately;

storing the indexing block of the preset multimedia content; and

transmitting only the indexing block to a content-requesting user multimedia device which requests the preset multimedia content, and content-requesting device being connected to said server through said network,

wherein each of the indexing blocks that is alternately disposed represents a part reproduced prior to reproduction of a corresponding multimedia block is a fast forward or reverse mode and containing position information about the corresponding multimedia block is requested by and received through P2P communication and is reproduced only in a fast forward or reverse mode, and

wherein said preset multimedia content is a single multimedia content file in which the multimedia blocks and the indexing blocks are consecutively and alternately disposed.