Virtualization in adaptive stream creation and delivery

• US 8,762,452 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2011
• Issued: 06/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ericsson Television Incorporated (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Original Assignee: Ericsson Television Incorporated (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Forsman, Bob, Dasher, Charles, Phillips, Chris, Reynolds, Jennifer, Martin, Steve
• Primary Examiner(s): ALGIBHAH, HAMZA N
• Application Number:
  US13/329,443
• Publication Number:
  US 20130159388A1
• Time in Patent Office: 918 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

An adaptive streaming server, a method, and a system are described herein that create a content stream to be delivered to one or more clients by segmenting the content into data structures which are stored in random access memory (volatile storage) rather than segmenting the content into segment files which are stored on a disk or database (non-volatile storage).

Claims

1. A streaming server for receiving a request from a client to play a content stream and for providing the content stream through a network to the client, the streaming server comprising:

a random access memory unit configured to store a plurality of data structures, wherein the streaming server is configured to receive the content stream, segment the content stream into the plurality of data structures rather than segment files, and store the plurality of data structures in the random access memory unit, wherein the plurality of data structures encompass pointers which correspond to time codes and a reference to the unsegmented content stream;

a processing unit configured to generate a manifest that includes a plurality of references corresponding to a plurality of fragments of the content stream;

wherein the streaming server is configured to send the manifest to the client;

wherein the streaming server is configured to receive a further request from the client to fetch one of the plurality of fragments of the content stream;

wherein the processing unit is further configured to obtain bytes associated with the requested fragment from the data structures stored in the random access memory unit, wherein the processing unit uses a start time and a stop time associated with the requested fragment and computes the corresponding pointers associated with the plurality of data structures to lookup bytes from the one or more data structures associated with the requested fragment; and

wherein the streaming server is configured to send the bytes associated with the requested fragment as a segment file to the client.

2. The streaming server of claim 1, where if the streaming server receives the content stream as a multi-program transport stream format then the streaming server is configured to demultiplex the multi-program transport stream format into multiple single-program stream formats in which each single-program stream format is segmented into a plurality of data structures and stored in the random access memory unit.

3. The streaming server of claim 1, where the processing unit when looking-up the bytes from the one or more data structures associated with the requested fragment is configured to perform an interpolation if needed to obtain the bytes of the requested fragment.

4. The streaming server of claim 1, where the streaming server is configured to send the manifest to the client before completing the segmenting of the content stream into the plurality of data structures.

5. The streaming server of claim 1, where the processing unit is configured to extract a fragment of the content stream from the data structures stored in the random access memory without needing to create new segment files.

6. The streaming server of claim 1, where the streaming server is configured to segment the content stream into the plurality of data structures only when it becomes necessary to provide one or more of the fragments of the content stream to the client.

7. The streaming server of claim 1, further comprising a packet escrow and corresponding escrow database configured to store the content stream before the streaming server segments the content stream into the plurality of data structures.

8. The streaming server of claim 1, where the client is one of a personal computer, a mobile phone, a tablet, or a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) capable television.

9. The streaming server of claim 1, where the content stream is one of a video-on-demand content stream or a broadcast content stream.

10. The streaming server of claim 1, wherein the processing unit comprises logic to extract a subset of any requested fragment at any boundary on-demand.

11. A method implemented by a streaming server for providing a content stream through a network to a client, the method comprising:

receiving a request from the client to play the content stream;

receiving the content stream;

segmenting the content stream into a plurality of data structures rather than segment files, where the plurality of data structures encompass pointers which correspond to time codes and a reference to the unsegmented content stream;

storing the plurality of data structures in a random access memory unit;

generating a manifest that includes a plurality references corresponding to a plurality of fragments of the content stream;

sending the manifest to the client;

receiving a further request from the client to fetch one of the fragments corresponding to the content stream;

obtaining bytes associated with the requested fragment from the data structures stored in the random access memory unit by using a start time and a stop time associated with the requested fragment and computing the corresponding pointers associated with the plurality of data structures to lookup bytes from the one or more data structures associated with the requested fragment; and

sending the bytes associated with the requested fragment as a segment file to the client.

12. The method of claim 11, where if the content stream is a multi-program transport stream format then extrapolating the multi-program transport stream format into multiple single-program stream formats in which each single-program stream format is segmented into a plurality of data structures and stored in the random access memory unit.

13. The method of claim 11, where the obtaining step further comprises an interpolating step to obtain the bytes associated with the requested fragment when the pointers associated with the data structures do not correspond with the start time and stop time in the requested fragment.

14. The method of claim 11, where the manifest is sent to the client before completing the segmenting of the content stream into the plurality of data structures.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising a step of extracting a fragment of the content stream from the data structures stored in the random access memory without needing to create new segment files.

16. The method of claim 11, where the step of segmenting the content stream into the plurality of data structures occurs only when it becomes necessary to provide one or more fragments of the content stream to the client.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising a step of storing the received content stream before the step of segmenting the content stream into the plurality of data structures.

18. The method of claim 11, where the client is one of a personal computer, a mobile phone, a tablet, or a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) capable television.

19. The method of claim 11, where the content stream is one of a video-on-demand content stream or a broadcast content stream.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising extracting a subset of any requested fragment at any boundary on-demand.