Performance aware peer-to-peer content-on-demand

• US 8,838,823 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2006
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Guo, Yang, Mathur, Saurabh, Ramaswamy, Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Louie, Oscar
• Assistant Examiner(s): Liu, Lin
• Application Number:
  US12/227,954
• Publication Number:
  US 20090177792A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,003 Days
• Field of Search: 709/231, 709/202, 709/205
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 Discovery through centralising entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1076 Resource dissemination mechanisms or network resource keeping policies for optimal resource availability in the overlay network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1078 Resource delivery mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/108 characterised by resources being split in blocks or fragments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2396 characterized by admission policies admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; arrangements for network security using user profiles for access control H04L63/102; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26233 involving content or additional data duration or size, e.g. length of a movie, size of an executable file
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

A method is described including receiving a streamed leading content sub-clip, determining a set of needed content sub-clips, locating one of the set of needed content sub-clips and downloading the located content sub-clip. A system for providing content-on-demand is described having a peer, a server and a tracker. The tracker may be co-located with the server. The peer includes means for receiving a streamed leading content sub-clip, means for determining a set of needed content sub-clips, means for locating one of the set of needed content sub-clips and means for downloading the located content sub-clip.

Claims

1. A method for a peer to receive content, said method comprising:

receiving a streamed leading content sub-clip;

determining a set of needed content sub-clips;

locating one of said set of needed content sub-clips;

calculating a deadline for downloading said located content sub-clip, wherein the deadline for downloading said located content sub-clip is a playback time of a start of said located content sub-clip;

determining if said deadline for downloading said located content sub-clip will be met; and

downloading said located content sub-clip from multiple peers simultaneously if said deadline for said located content sub-clip will be met,

preparing a missing data vector if said deadline for downloading said located content sub-clip will be exceeded; and

invoking complementary streaming for blocks of said located content sub-clip for which said deadline will be exceeded.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising requesting a unit of content.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising joining a peer-to-peer network to obtain said located content sub-clip.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

segmenting blocks of needed content sub-clips into sub-blocks;

pipelining requests for said sub-blocks; and

forwarding status.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein said status includes downloading status, status of peer-to-peer network participation and status of cached content.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said locating step further comprises:

signaling a sub-tracker to determine a location and status of said needed content sub-clips; and

selecting said location from which to request said located content sub-clips.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein said selecting step is based on a least rarest first scheme.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising calculating a downloading progress indicator.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said downloading progress indicator is a ratio of a required downloading rate and an achieved downloading rate.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising calculating an uploading weight.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

setting a pointer to a next needed content sub-clip.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising incrementing said pointer.

13. The method according to claim 11, further comprising joining a peer-to-peer network to obtain said next needed content sub-clip.

14. A peer-to-peer system, comprising:

a hardware processor coupled to a server;

a hardware processor coupled to a peer; and

a tracker, wherein said tracker and said server are one of co-located and not co-located, wherein said server is a seed, wherein said peer is a downloader, wherein said peer is further configured to;

receive a streamed leading content sub-clip;

determine a set of needed content sub-clips;

locate one of said set of needed content sub-clips;

calculate a deadline for downloading said located content sub-clip;

determine if said deadline for downloading said located content sub-clip will be met;

download said located content sub-clip from multiple peers simultaneously if said deadline for said located content sub-clip will be met;

prepare a missing data vector if said deadline for downloading said located content sub-clip will be exceeded; and

invoke complementary, streaming for blocks of said located content sub-clip for which said deadline will be exceeded.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein said peer is further configured to request a unit of content.

16. The system according to claim 14, wherein said peer is further configured to join a peer-to-peer network to obtain said located content sub-clip.

17. The system according to claim 14, wherein said peer is further configured to:

segment blocks of needed content sub-clips into sub-blocks;

pipeline requests for said sub-blocks; and

forward status.

18. The system according to claim 14, wherein said peer configured to locate one of said set of needed content sub-clips is further configured to:

signal a sub-tracker to determine a location and status of said needed content sub-clips; and

select said location from which to request said located content sub-clips.