System and method of minimizing network bandwidth retrieved from an external network

• US 8,370,514 B2
• Filed: 03/10/2008
• Issued: 02/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Dish Digital LLC
• Inventors: Hurst, Mark B., Larsen, Loren, Anderson, David S., Wang, Lei
• Primary Examiner(s): Ibrahim, Mohamed
• Application Number:
  US12/075,475
• Publication Number:
  US 20080222235A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,793 Days
• Field of Search: 709/231, 709/246
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1076 Resource dissemination mechanisms or network resource keeping policies for optimal resource availability in the overlay network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2885 Hierarchically arranged intermediate devices, e.g. for hierarchical caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• 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 21/234327 by decomposing into layers, e.g. base layer and one or more enhancement layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25808 Management of client data terminal profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440227 by decomposing into layers, e.g. base layer and one or more enhancement layers
• 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 21/643 : Communication protocols network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP], H04L65/65
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 : by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 : Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

A system and method are provided of minimizing network bandwidth used from an external network by client peers in a local network. The method can include the operation of organizing a plurality of clients each having media streamlets and a client parent in a structure within the local network. Mapping information propagates through the structure. The mapping information represents local streamlet locations as stored by the plurality of clients. Another operation is retrieving a local streamlet from a client identified in the mapping information as having the local streamlet for the requesting client.

Claims

1. A method executable by each of a plurality of clients operating as peers in a local area network to reduce consumption of network bandwidth on an external network during streaming of a media stream obtained from an external network repository, the method comprising:

the client organizing in a linked structure with the other clients, wherein each of the plurality of clients in the linked structure has a different set of media streamlets obtained from the external network repository, and wherein each streamlet is an individually-addressable data file containing an identifiable portion of the media stream having a particular quality, wherein each client is linked to at least one other client and the plurality of linked clients are located within the local network;

each client distributing streamlet mapping information to linked receiving clients, the streamlet mapping information representing location of local media streamlets stored by the plurality of clients;

each client applying a priority policy rule defining streamlet quality priorities and network priorities that are used when obtaining media streamlets for media playback; and

during playback of the media stream, retrieving additional media streamlets based on the priority policy rule from the plurality of clients within the local network using the streamlet mapping information if the additional media streamlets are available from clients within the local network, and otherwise obtaining the additional media streamlets from the external network repository.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein the priority policy rule is defined to have clients obtain the highest quality streamlets possible with a lowest amount of external network access.

3. A method as in claim 1, wherein the priority policy rule is defined to have clients obtain as many local streamlets as possible regardless of streamlet quality in order to minimize external network access.

4. A method as in claim 1, wherein the priority policy rule is defined to have clients obtain the highest quality streamlets by checking the local network first using the streamlet mapping information and then the external network second.

5. A method as in claim 1, wherein the priority policy rule is defined to retrieve the highest quality streamlets possible based on a client machine'"'"'s ability to sustainably decode the streamlets and based on a minimum latency threshold of retrieving the packets from local and external networks.

6. A method as in claim 1, wherein the priority policy rule is defined to retrieve the highest quality streamlets possible based on a comparison of minimum streamlet quality available on the local network and a minimum latency threshold for retrieving the packets from a network.

7. A method as in claim 1, further comprising linking the media clients in a hierarchical structure.

8. A method as in claim 1, further comprising linking the media clients in a ring structure.

9. A method as in claim 1, wherein the distributing streamlet mapping information further comprises distributing streamlet mapping information that includes the streamlet mapping for the replying client and additional streamlet mapping information received from other linked clients.

10. A method as in claim 1, wherein network priorities define the ordering in which streamlets at defined qualities should be retrieved from clients on the local network and servers on external networks.

11. A method of reducing network bandwidth of an external network consumed by client peers in a local network during streaming of a media stream, comprising:

identifying a plurality of clients having media streamlets, the plurality of clients being located within the local network, wherein each of the media streamlets is an individually-addressable data file containing an identifiable portion of the media stream having a particular quality, wherein a limited number of tokens are assigned to the plurality of clients arranged in a hierarchical structure, and wherein a number of tokens is less than the plurality of clients;

requesting to join the hierarchical structure by a requesting client desiring a local streamlet for media playback;

receiving a response message from a client with a token, the response message containing the depth of the client in the tree and a nonce identifying the tree;

receiving mapping information from the client with the token at the requesting client, wherein the mapping information represents locations of local streamlets stored on each of the plurality of clients;

connecting the requesting client to the hierarchical structure of the plurality of clients; and

subsequently obtaining at least one local streamlet of the media stream from a location identified in the mapping information by making a direct request from the requesting client to the client within the local network having the local streamlet.

12. The method as in claim 11, further comprising creating a defined number of tokens for a first client that joins a hierarchal tree.

13. The method as in claim 11, wherein the creating a defined number of tokens for a first client to join a hierarchical content tree, further comprises creating a number of tokens based on a maximum number of mapping information exchange connections that are supportable.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising retrieving the local streamlet from a client in the local network that is listed in the mapping information as storing the local streamlet.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising requesting the local streamlet from a video server via the internet when the local streamlet is not available in the mapping information.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the assigning a limited number of tokens further comprises using two to ten tokens in the hierarchical structure.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising passing a token from a parent client to child clients by randomly assigning tokens to child clients.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the local streamlets was previously received at one of the plurality of clients on the local area network from an external network repository, and wherein the requesting client obtains the local streamlet from the client on the local area network during playback of the media stream instead of from the external network repository.

19. A system for reducing network bandwidth consumed by a media stream represented by a series of streamlets that are retrieved over an external network connection from an external network repository, comprising:

a plurality of clients each configured to store local copies of streamlets from the series of streamlets representing the media stream, wherein each of the clients is configured to communicate with other clients via a local area network, the local area network being in communication with the external network connection, wherein the plurality of clients is organized into a hierarchical structure having a number of tokens assigned to the clients,

wherein the number of tokens is less than the number of clients in the hierarchical structure;

wherein each of the plurality of clients comprises an instance of a media player configured to playback the series of streamlets representing the media stream; and

wherein each of the plurality of clients distributes a metadata map configured to list which streamlets are locally stored by the client to thereby allow the media players executing on other clients to identify and retrieve locally-stored streamlets from the other clients in the hierarchical structure instead of the external network repository for decoding during playback of the media stream by the media player.

20. The system as in claim 19, wherein a number of tokens for the hierarchical structure is based on a maximum number of mapping information exchange connections that are supportable.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the plurality of tokens defines which clients are able to be attached to by clients entering the hierarchy.

22. A method of reducing network bandwidth used from an external network by client peers in a local network during streaming of a media stream represented by a series of media streamlets, wherein each of the series of streamlets is an individually-addressable data file containing an identifiable portion of the media stream, the method comprising:

organizing a plurality of clients in a hierarchical structure within the local network;

obtaining mapping information for a requesting client from at least one other client, the mapping information representing locations of local streamlets from the series of media streamlets that are stored by the at least one other client; and

retrieving one of the local streamlets identified in the mapping information from the at least one other client for decoding during playback of the media stream.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the client requests mapping information from a respective parent client when the parent client does not have mapping information desired by the requesting client.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising playing the media stream for display to an end user using at least some of the local streamlets on media player in the requesting client.

25. The method of claim 22, further comprising enabling the client to check for streamlets listed in the mapping information that are playing at the highest quality level that the client can support, without regard for the available bandwidth from the external network.