Reliable media streaming

• US 8,392,748 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2009
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bocharov, John A., Zhang, Geqiang (Sam), Duggaraju, Krishna Prakash, Liu, Lin, Gao, Jimin
• Primary Examiner(s): GUYTON, PHILIP A
• Application Number:
  US12/611,136
• Publication Number:
  US 20110083037A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,218 Days
• Field of Search: 714/4.11, 370/216, 709/217, 709/231
• US Class Current: 714/4.11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2023 Failover techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2097 maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23116 involving data replication, e.g. over plural servers synchronization of replicated data G06F11/1658; error detection or correction by means of data replication G06F11/2053; replication in distributed file systems G06F16/10; replication in distributed file systems G06F16/27; replication or mirroring of data in data networks H04L67/1095
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2404 Monitoring of server processing errors or hardware failure error or fault detection G06F11/07; monitoring in general G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

A reliable streaming system increases reliability of live and on-demand streaming media events through a robust server architecture that allows fast failover and recovery in the event of network, hardware, or other failures. The system provides for failover of encoders, ingest servers, which receive encoded media data from encoders, and origin servers, which serve as the retrieval point of last resort for connecting clients. The system also provides a push proxy mechanism that allows one copy of data to feed redundant servers and pre-warm caches, saving on provisioned bandwidth. In addition, the system provides a distribution server role that allows content to be automatically syndicated to a region when needed. Thus, the reliable streaming system provides a streaming solution with no single point of failure and redundancy and fast failover built into the content network architecture.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing failover in a streaming media system, the method comprising:

receiving encoded media data from at least one encoder for a media stream, wherein the encoded data is pushed to an ingest server;

pushing the received encoded media data from the ingest server to multiple origin servers so that the encoder consumes bandwidth for transmitting a single copy of the media data but gains failover provided by two or more origin servers;

receiving from at least one distribution server a request to pull data from the origin server;

determining that at least one of the encoder, the ingest server, the origin server, or the distribution server has experienced a failure that disrupts transmission of the media data; and

directing a receiver of the media data to retrieve the media data from a redundant server with access to the encoded media data,

wherein the preceding steps are performed by at least one processor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining that at least one of the encoder, the ingest server, the origin server, or the distribution server has experienced a failure comprises determining that the encoder has failed and wherein directing a receiver of the media data to retrieve the media data from a redundant server comprises directing a second encoder to provide encoded media data to the ingest server.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein determining that at least one of the encoder, the ingest server, the origin server, or the distribution server has experienced a failure comprises determining that the ingest server has failed and wherein directing a receiver of the media data to retrieve the media data from a redundant server comprises directing a second ingest server to provide encoded media data to the origin server.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein determining that at least one of the encoder, the ingest server, the origin server, or the distribution server has experienced a failure comprises determining that the origin server has failed and wherein directing a receiver of the media data to retrieve the media data from a redundant server comprises directing a second origin server to provide encoded media data to the distribution server.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving encoded media data from at least one encoder for a media stream comprises receiving redundant encoded media data from multiple encoders at the same time.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving from at least one distribution server a request to pull data from the origin server comprises receiving the request in response to a client request.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein pushing the received encoded media data from the ingest server to at least one origin server further comprises pushing the received encoded media data from the ingest server to a second ingest server for redundancy.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein pushing the received encoded media data from the ingest server to at least one origin server further comprises pushing the received encoded media data from the ingest server to a second origin server for redundancy.

9. A computer system for reliably streaming media events, the system comprising:

a processor and memory configured to execute software instructions;

a server role component configured to receive configuration information that defines a particular server'"'"'s role in a content network and prepares the server to carry out that role;

an encoder interface component configured to provide an interface between the system and one or more encoders that provide encoded media data as continuous media fragments, wherein each encoder pushes received encoded media data to an ingest server and then to multiple origin servers so that the encoder consumes bandwidth for transmitting a single copy of the media data but gains failover provided by two or more origin servers;

an index fragment component configured to create and maintain an index table of media fragments received from encoders;

a fragment data store configured to store received media fragments and the created index table of fragments to provide to clients based on received client requests;

a client interface component configured to receive client requests for media fragments and provide manifest data and requested fragments to clients.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the server role component is further configured to receive a role selected from the group consisting of an encoder, an ingest server, an origin server, and a distribution server.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the server role component is further configured to specify communication of received media fragments between multiple servers.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the server role component is further configured to cause a server acting in the role of an encoder to transmit media fragments to multiple ingest servers.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the server role component is further configured to cause a server acting in the role of an ingest server to transmit media fragments to multiple origin servers.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the server role component is further configured to cause a server acting in the role of a distribution server to pull media fragments from one or more origin servers.

15. The system of claim 9 wherein the client interface component is further configured to create segmented archives that provide a portion of a live media event on-demand as a standalone media presentation.

16. A computer-readable storage device comprising instructions for controlling a computer system to reliably receive media fragments over a network, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause a processor to perform actions comprising:

requesting a media fragment associated with a streaming media presentation;

receiving an error indicating that the fragment could not be retrieved from a first server;

retrying the request for the media fragment by sending the request to a second redundant server containing the media fragment, wherein the second redundant server was previously sent the media fragment from an ingest server that provided the fragment to multiple origin servers so that an encoder consumes bandwidth for transmitting a single copy of the media data but gains failover provided by two or more origin servers;

receiving the requested media fragment; and

displaying the received media fragment without interruption to the streaming media presentation.

17. The device of claim 16 wherein retrying the request comprises sending the request to a second origin server configured to handle failover for a first origin server.

18. The device of claim 16 wherein receiving the requested media fragment comprises receiving the media fragment from a second encoder that provides redundant fragments related to fragments produced by a first encoder and wherein each encoder identifies fragments by associating a timestamp with each fragment.

19. The device of claim 16 wherein receiving the requested media fragment comprises receiving the fragment from a distribution server geographically closer to the client than an origin server.