Distributing multi-media content to a plurality of potential accessing devices

• US 8,762,479 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2012
• Issued: 06/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Cleversafe Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Gladwin, S. Christopher, Grube, Gary W., Markison, Timothy W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky, Moustafa M
• Application Number:
  US13/464,166
• Publication Number:
  US 20120311068A1
• Time in Patent Office: 781 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-214, 709217-229
• US Class Current: 709/214
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/108 Parity data distribution in semiconductor storages, e.g. in SSD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1402 Saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1035 Keeping track, i.e. keeping track of data and parity changes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0652 Erasing, e.g. deleting, data cleaning, moving of data to a wastebasket
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/06 using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/1105 Decoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communication real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM] H04L51/04; selective video distribution H04N21/00
• 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: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass networks security protocols H04L9/40; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/00 Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD] real-time bi-directional transmission of motion video data H04N7/14 ; broadcast or conference over packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23109 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. EPG data repository details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

A method begins by a dispersed storage (DS) processing module encoding a data segment of multi-media content using a dispersed storage error coding function to produce a set of encoded data slices and partitioning the set of encoded data slices into a first sub-set of encoded data slices and a second sub-set of encoded data slices, wherein the first sub-set of encoded data slices include less than a decode threshold number of encoded data slices. The method continues with the DS processing module distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices to a plurality of potential accessing devices and when accessing information from a device of the plurality of potential accessing devices is received, sending at least one of the encoded data slices of the second sub-set of encoded data slices to the device such that the device has the decode threshold number of encoded data slices.

Claims

1. A method comprises:

encoding a data segment of multi-media content using a dispersed storage error coding function to produce a set of encoded data slices;

partitioning the set of encoded data slices into a first sub-set of encoded data slices and a second sub-set of encoded data slices, wherein the first sub-set of encoded data slices include less than a decode threshold number of encoded data slices;

distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices to a plurality of potential accessing devices; and

when accessing information from a device of the plurality of potential accessing devices is received, sending at least one of the encoded data slices of the second sub-set of encoded data slices to the device such that the device has the decode threshold number of encoded data slices.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices to the plurality of potential accessing devices in advance of an available purchase date of the multi-media content.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending the at least one of the encoded data slices further comprises:

sending the at least one of the encoded data slices and remaining encoded data slices of the second sub-set of encoded data slices in accordance with a transmission protocol.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the accessing information comprises at least one of:

purchasing information to purchase the multi-media content; and

viewing information regarding viewing of the multi-media content.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices further comprises:

distributing a delete function with the first sub-set of encoded data slices, wherein the delete function is activated to delete the first sub-set of encoded data slices when the accessing information is not received in a specified time frame.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoding the data segment into the set of encoded data slices further comprises:

embedding a delete function within the first sub-set of encoded data slices, wherein the delete function is activated to delete the first sub-set of encoded data slices when the accessing information is not received in a specified time frame.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices further comprises:

identifying the plurality of potential accessing devices by at least one of;

identifying a potential accessing device based on a likelihood of consumption of the multi-media content by the potential accessing device;

receiving a content request from the potential accessing device;

receiving a pre-purchase order for the multi-media content from the potential accessing device; and

polling the potential accessing device regarding accessing the multi-media content.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices comprises:

determining a distribution scheme; and

distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices in accordance with the distribution scheme.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining the distribution scheme comprises at least one of:

determining one or more connectivity routes to the plurality of potential accessing devices;

determining a system loading threshold, where the distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices to the plurality of potential accessing devices occurs when system loading compares favorably to the system loading threshold;

determining a time of day based factor for distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices to the plurality of potential accessing devices; and

identifying intermediate devices to facilitate the distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices to the plurality of potential accessing devices.

10. A dispersed storage (DS) module comprises:

a first module, when operable within a computing device, causes the computing device to;

encode a data segment of multi-media content using a dispersed storage error coding function to produce a set of encoded data slices;

a second module, when operable within the computing device, causes the computing device to;

partition the set of encoded data slices into a first sub-set of encoded data slices and a second sub-set of encoded data slices, wherein the first sub-set of encoded data slices include less than a decode threshold number of encoded data slices;

a third module, when operable within the computing device, causes the computing device to;

distribute the first sub-set of encoded data slices to a plurality of potential accessing devices; and

a fourth module, when operable within the computing device, causes the computing device to;

when accessing information from a device of the plurality of potential accessing devices is received, send at least one of the encoded data slices of the second sub-set of encoded data slices to the device such that the device has the decode threshold number of encoded data slices.

11. The DS module of claim 10, wherein the third module is further operable to:

distribute the first sub-set of encoded data slices to the plurality of potential accessing devices in advance of an available purchase date of the multi-media content.

12. The DS module of claim 10, wherein the fourth module is further operable to send the at least one of the encoded data slices by:

sending the at least one of the encoded data slices and remaining encoded data slices of the second sub-set of encoded data slices in accordance with a transmission protocol.

13. The DS module of claim 10, wherein the accessing information comprises at least one of:

purchasing information to purchase the multi-media content; and

viewing information regarding viewing of the multi-media content.

14. The DS module of claim 10, wherein the third module is further operable to distribute the first sub-set of encoded data slices by:

distributing a delete function with the first sub-set of encoded data slices, wherein the delete function is activated to delete the first sub-set of encoded data slices when the accessing information is not received in a specified time frame.

15. The DS module of claim 10, wherein the first module is further operable to encode the data segment into the set of encoded data slices by:

embedding a delete function within the first sub-set of encoded data slices, wherein the delete function is activated to delete the first sub-set of encoded data slices when the accessing information is not received in a specified time frame.

16. The DS module of claim 10, wherein the third module is further operable to distribute the first sub-set of encoded data slices by:

identifying the plurality of potential accessing devices by at least one of;

identifying a potential accessing device based on a likelihood of consumption of the multi-media content by the potential accessing device;

receiving a content request from the potential accessing device;

receiving a pre-purchase order for the multi-media content from the potential accessing device; and

polling the potential accessing device regarding accessing the multi-media content.

17. The DS module of claim 10, wherein the third module is further operable to distribute the first sub-set of encoded data slices by:

determining a distribution scheme; and

distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices in accordance with the distribution scheme.

18. The DS module of claim 17, wherein the third module is operable to determine the distribution scheme by at least one of:

determining one or more connectivity routes to the plurality of potential accessing devices;

determining a system loading threshold, where the distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices to the plurality of potential accessing devices occurs when system loading compares favorably to the system loading threshold;

determining a time of day based factor for distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices to the plurality of potential accessing devices; and

identifying intermediate devices to facilitate the distributing the first sub-set of encoded data slices to the plurality of potential accessing devices.