Stream control failover utilizing an attribute-dependent protection mechanism
First Claim
1. A method for managing the streaming of digital video content to multiple clients, the method comprising:
- identifying an attribute of a content element that is streamed to a client; and
selecting a protection mechanism for the content element as a function of the attribute, wherein the protection mechanism enables streaming of the content element to the client from another stream server in the event of a resource failure;
wherein selecting the protection mechanism comprises;
identifying the resource requirements of multiple protection mechanisms;
establishing a fault recovery requirement for a content element; and
selecting, for the content element, the protection mechanism with the lowest resource requirement that meets the fault recovery requirement for the content element, the lowest resource requirement being a least resource intensive protection mechanism meeting the fault recovery requirement, wherein the resource requirement that meets the fault recovery requirement is proportional to a desired speed of recovery in the event of the resource failure, the desired speed of recovery for the content element being a function of the attribute.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A technique for managing the streaming of digital video content to multiple clients involves identifying an attribute of a content element that is streamed to a client and selecting a protection mechanism for the content element as a function of the attribute, wherein the protection mechanism enables streaming of the content element to the clients in the event of a resource failure. In an example, the identified attribute is an indication of the popularity of the content element (e.g., as measured by the number of active streams), such that the protection mechanism is selected as a function of the popularity of the content element. In an embodiment, protection mechanisms that offer a higher level of protection are selected for the more popular content elements and protection mechanisms that offer a lower level of protection are selected for the less popular content elements.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for managing the streaming of digital video content to multiple clients, the method comprising:
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identifying an attribute of a content element that is streamed to a client; and selecting a protection mechanism for the content element as a function of the attribute, wherein the protection mechanism enables streaming of the content element to the client from another stream server in the event of a resource failure; wherein selecting the protection mechanism comprises; identifying the resource requirements of multiple protection mechanisms; establishing a fault recovery requirement for a content element; and selecting, for the content element, the protection mechanism with the lowest resource requirement that meets the fault recovery requirement for the content element, the lowest resource requirement being a least resource intensive protection mechanism meeting the fault recovery requirement, wherein the resource requirement that meets the fault recovery requirement is proportional to a desired speed of recovery in the event of the resource failure, the desired speed of recovery for the content element being a function of the attribute. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for managing the streaming of digital video content to multiple clients, the method comprising:
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identifying an attribute of a content element that is streamed to a client; and selecting a protection mechanism for the content element as a function of the attribute, wherein the protection mechanism enables streaming of the content element to the client in the event of a resource failure; wherein selecting the protection mechanism comprises; identifying the resource requirements of multiple different available protection mechanisms; establishing a fault recovery requirement for a content element, wherein the fault recovery requirement indicates at least one of a maximum acceptable delay for the content element and a maximum acceptable frame loss for the content element; and selecting, for the content element, the protection mechanism with the lowest resource requirement that still meets the fault recovery requirement for the content element so that the level of protection provided by the selected protection mechanism is matched to the particular fault recovery needs of the content element, the lowest resource requirement being a least resource intensive protection mechanism meeting the fault recovery requirement, wherein the resource requirement that meets the fault recovery requirement is proportional to a desired speed of recovery in the event of the resource failure, the desired speed of recovery for the content element being a function of the attribute. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A system for managing the streaming of digital video content to multiple clients, the system comprising:
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a vault server for storing the digital video content; a logical group of stream servers configured to ingest the digital video content from the vault server and control the streaming of the digital video content to the multiple clients, wherein the logical group of stream servers is further configured to; identify an attribute of a content element that is streamed to the clients; and select a protection mechanism for the content element as a function of the attribute, wherein the protection mechanism enables streaming of the content element to the clients from another stream server in the event of a resource failure; wherein selecting the protection mechanism comprises; identifying the resource requirements of multiple protection mechanisms; establishing a fault recovery requirement for a content element; and selecting, for the content element, the protection mechanism with the lowest resource requirement that meets the fault recovery requirement for the content element, the lowest resource requirement being a least resource intensive protection mechanism meeting the fault recovery requirement, wherein the resource requirement that meets the fault recovery requirement is proportional to a desired speed of recovery in the event of the resource failure, the desired speed of recovery for the content element being a function of the attribute. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification