Intelligent device media stream caching

• US 8,719,440 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2011
• Issued: 05/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TiVo Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MobiTV Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Nooney, Charles, Karlsson, Kent
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Application Number:
  US13/232,909
• Publication Number:
  US 20130067036A1
• Time in Patent Office: 965 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/231, 709236-239, 709/250
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• 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 21/8451 using Advanced Video Coding [AVC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

A media stream delivery system encodes numerous media streams into media stream fragments. The media stream delivery system may encode each media stream into a number of variants each having different resolutions, frame rates, audio quality levels, etc. Devices access the media stream fragments from a fragment server in order to reconstruct a particular media stream for playback. A device may perform caching of media stream fragments so that particular fragments need not be accessed from a fragment server. The device monitors and analyzes media streams and viewing characteristics to intelligently select fragments that will likely be needed again, such as fragments associated with repeated advertisements, introduction sequences, and end sequences.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

requesting a first media stream from a fragment server, the first media stream including a plurality of encoded fragments;

receiving a first encoded fragment and generating an identifier corresponding to the first encoded fragment to access a fragment table;

determining whether to cache the first encoded fragment using the fragment table at a device;

requesting a second encoded fragment using metadata from the first encoded fragment;

constructing the first media stream using the first encoded fragment and the second encoded fragment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the device monitors and analyzes a plurality of media streams to identify sequences of media likely to be repeated.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein frames associated with the sequences of media likely to be repeated at identified for caching at the device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the sequences of media include advertisement sequences.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the sequences of media include program introduction sequences.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the sequences of media include program end sequences.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the fragment table includes a plurality of fragment identifiers associated with the number of times each fragment has been requested.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first encoded fragment is an H.264 encoded fragment processed using a plurality of distributed and dynamically scalable encoder resources.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of distributed and dynamically scalable encoder resources are a plurality of virtual machines configured to perform encoding and fragmentation.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the H.264 encoded fragment is encoded from an MPEG-2 group of pictures (GOP).

11. A device, comprising:

an interface operable to request a first media stream from a fragment server, the first media stream including a plurality of encoded fragment, wherein the interface is operable to receive a first encoded fragment;

a processor operable to generate an identifier corresponding to the first encoded fragment to access a fragment table and determine whether to cache the first encoded fragment using the fragment table at a device;

wherein the device requests a second encoded fragment using metadata from the first encoded fragment and constructs the first media stream using the first encoded fragment and the second encoded fragment.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the device monitors and analyzes a plurality of media streams to identify sequences of media likely to be repeated.

13. The device of claim 11, wherein frames associated with the sequences of media likely to be repeated at identified for caching at the device.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the sequences of media include advertisement sequences.

15. The device of claim 13, wherein the sequences of media include program introduction sequences.

16. The device of claim 13, wherein the sequences of media include program end sequences.

17. The device of claim 11, wherein the fragment table includes a plurality of fragment identifiers associated with the number of times each fragment has been requested.

18. The device of claim 11, wherein the first encoded fragment is an H.264 encoded fragment processed using a plurality of distributed and dynamically scalable encoder resources.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the plurality of distributed and dynamically scalable encoder resources are a plurality of virtual machines configured to perform encoding and fragmentation.

20. An apparatus, comprising:

means for requesting a first media stream from a fragment server, the first media stream including a plurality of encoded fragments;

means for receiving a first encoded fragment and generating an identifier corresponding to the first encoded fragment to access a fragment table;

means for determining whether to cache the first encoded fragment using the fragment table at a device;

means for requesting a second encoded fragment using metadata from the first encoded fragment;

means for constructing the first media stream using the first encoded fragment and the second encoded fragment.