Method and system for broadcasting multimedia data

• US 8,230,097 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2005
• Issued: 07/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VectorMAX Corporation
• Original Assignee: VectorMAX Corporation
• Inventors: Rachwalski, Jon, Witt, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): STRANGE, AARON N
• Application Number:
  US11/244,442
• Publication Number:
  US 20060085553A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,484 Days
• Field of Search: 709/231, 709/227, 709/245, 709/226, 370/352, 370/390, 370/392, 370/401, 370/468, 370/507, 370/432, 370/467, 455/518
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 7/30 Compression speech analysis-synthesis for redundancy reduction G10L19/00; for image communication H04N; Expansion; Suppression of unnecessary data, e.g. redundancy reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0083 Formatting with frames or packets; Protocol or part of protocol for error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1877 Measures taken prior to transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0093 Point-to-multipoint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/806 Broadcast or multicast traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/166 at the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• 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 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/065 Encryption by serially and continuously modifying data stream elements, e.g. stream cipher systems, RC4, SEAL or A5/3
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/107 between spatial and temporal predictive coding, e.g. picture refresh
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/119 Adaptive subdivision aspects, e.g. subdivision of a picture into rectangular or non-rectangular coding blocks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/136 : Incoming video signal characteristics or properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/162 : User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 : the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 : the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 : using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/46 : Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/51 : Motion estimation or motion compensation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/57 : Motion estimation characterised by a search window with variable size or shape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/583 : Motion compensation with overlapping blocks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 : comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 : Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/222 : Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2347 : involving video stream encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 : Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25875 : involving end-user authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; arrangements for secret or secure communication including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26613 : for generating or managing keys in general key distribution for secret or secure communication involving central third party, e.g. key distribution center [KDC] or trusted third party [TTP] H04L9/083; network support of key management H04L63/06; key management for network security in communication control or processing H04W12/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4405 : involving video stream decryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47205 : for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• 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 21/6125 : involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/63345 : by transmitting keys key distribution for secret or secure communication H04L9/08; network support of key management H04L63/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 : Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 : Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 : Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 : Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A broadcast system provides support for clients to receive transmissions over a unicast or a multicast channel from a broadcast server. A server administrator configures each of a first server and client systems connected to the server to receive data in one of a multicast or unicast transmission mode. An empirical test determines whether an intervening network can support the configured mode and if not, transmission is performed using a fall back mode. The first server is able to provide access to data streams from other servers to the client systems connected thereto. Upon requesting a data stream from another server, the first server receives the data stream, replicates the data stream, transmits the data stream to the requesting client system and stores the replicated data stream for immediate access by any requesting client server connected thereto.

Claims

1. A method for determining a transport mode comprising the activities of:

transmitting a multicast stream by a server to a media player application, said multicast stream including multimedia data requested by a user and being used in determining a transport mode of a data stream able to be received by said media player application;

checking said multicast stream by said media player application for features of a multicast streaming format to determine if said media player application can receive said multicast stream;

automatically enabling a unicast transmission of a copy of said multimedia data requested by the user to the media player application during said activity of checking enabling said media player application to receive and begin displaying said requested data while determining if said media player application can receive said transmitted multicast stream;

automatically enabling multicast processing of the transmitted multicast stream to the media player application and terminating said transmission of said unicast transmission of said multimedia data in response to detecting features of a multicast streaming format within said multicast stream by the media player application during said activity of checking.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the activities of:

configuring, by an administrator, the server to support at least one of unicast and multicast transmission modes; and

configuring, by an administrator, the media player application to support at least one of unicast and multicast transmission modes.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the activity of determining elements of an intervening network connecting the server and media player application are multicast enabled upon detecting features of the multicast streaming format by the media player application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity enabling the unicast transmission further includes the activity of recording a failure of the multicast stream.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity of checking includes at least one of checking for an extensible markup language (XML) header, a 4 byte header and features of a transport layer protocol.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the activities of:

in response to the automatic enabling of the unicast transmission, replicating by a transmitting server, the transmitted multicast stream; and

storing the replicated multicast stream in a storage medium of an additional server.

7. A system for broadcasting an encoded data stream in one of a multicast and unicast transmission mode, said system comprising:

a plurality of client systems including a media player application;

a first server broadcasting a particular data stream to at least one of said plurality of client systems, said particular data stream including multimedia data requested by at least one client system and being used in determining a transport mode of a data stream able to be received by said client system, and being broadcast as

a multicast formatted data stream including features of a multicast streaming format enabling the client system to determine if the client is able to receive said multicast formatted data stream; and

,

an intervening network connecting said first server to each of said plurality of client systems enabling transmission of said particular data stream from said first server to at least one of said plurality of clients, said first server, in response to a request from at least one of said plurality of clients,

automatically initiating a broadcast of said particular data stream in a unicast transmission mode enabling said media player application to receive and begin displaying said particular data stream while said media player application is detecting features of a multicast streaming format within said multicast formatted particular encoded data stream and

automatically enabling multicast processing of the particular encoded multicast formatted data stream by the media player application and terminating said broadcast of said particular data stream in said unicast transmission mode in response to said detection of multicast features within said particular encoded data stream.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein broadcasting of the encoded data stream between the first server and a respective one of said plurality of client systems is determined based upon whether the respective client system received the multicast data stream and detected the features of a streaming format.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein said first server is able to transmit in both the multicast transmission mode and the unicast transmission mode simultaneously to different ones of said plurality of client systems.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein said first server includes:

a replication processor for replicating said multicast data stream in response to the automatic broadcasting of the encoded data stream being in the unicast transmission mode; and

a storage medium for storing said replicated multicast data stream.