Method and apparatus for a fault resilient collaborative media serving array

• US 8,943,218 B2
• Filed: 10/12/2006
• Issued: 01/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vecima Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Concurrent Computer Corporation
• Inventors: Malaby, Stephen, Barkley, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Vostal, Ondrej C.
• Application Number:
  US11/546,795
• Publication Number:
  US 20080091805A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,029 Days
• Field of Search: 709/235, 709/226, 718/104
• US Class Current: 709/235
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/00 Accessing, addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures digital input from, or digital output to record carriers, e.g. to disk storage units, G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• 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 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2182 involving memory arrays, e.g. RAID disk arrays RAID arrays per se G06F3/0689; use of parity to protect data in RAID systems G06F11/1008
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23103 using load balancing strategies, e.g. by placing or distributing content on different disks, different memories or different servers storage management G06F3/0604; allocation of resources considering the load in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/505; techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system G06F9/5083; access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. load balancing, in data networks H04L67/1001
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems, and apparatuses for a fault resilient collaborative media serving array comprising a plurality of nodes. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method for creating a fault resilient collaborative media serving array where the array nodes do not share memory, the serving of a content file is accomplished by the collaborative efforts of many nodes in the array, and where there is no fixed allocation of sessions to nodes.

Claims

1. A system for delivering content, the system comprising:

a plurality of nodes comprising at least a first node and a second node, wherein each node of the plurality of nodes comprises a memory and a processor;

a content file that has been partitioned into an ordered list of parts comprising at least a first part and a second part, wherein the first part is stored in the memory of the first node and the second part is stored in the memory of the second node;

a client device for receiving the parts over a network; and

a switch;

wherein at least the first node and the second node are synchronized to send the first part and the second part sequentially in succession to the client device in response to a customer request from the client device that may be granted, denied, or granted only with certain restrictions, the restrictions comprising one or more of size and location, and in accordance with a plan executed by the plurality of nodes wherein at least one of the first part and second part further comprise trick content for implementing track mode playback comprising at least one of fast forward or rewind.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a broker connected to the network, wherein the broker determines which of the plurality of nodes is the second node.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor of the first node determines independently which of the plurality of nodes is the second node.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a token that is received by the second node over the network, wherein the token indicates that the second node is to send the second part to the user over the network.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising a broker connected to the network, wherein the broker sends the token to the second node.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the token is sent by the first node.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor of the second node uses a common time reference to determine when to send the second part to the user over the network.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein client device plays the parts in the order that they are received.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the client device comprises a buffer.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory of the first node and the memory of the second node are separate.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the memory of the first node and the memory of the second node comprise random access memory.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first node and the second node further comprises a stream pump for sending parts in-order to the client device over the network.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor of the first node uses seed information to independently determine which of the plurality of nodes is the second node, wherein seed information includes at least one of the number of nodes that contain parts of the content file, metadata describing the content file, or a common time reference.

14. A method for sending content to a user, comprising the steps of:

partitioning the content into an ordered list of parts comprising a first part and a second part;

allocating at least the first part to a first node, and at least the second part to a second node;

sending the first part from the first node to the user through a switch;

determining which of a plurality of nodes is the second node from a plan determined in response to a customer request that may be granted, denied, or granted only with certain restrictions, the restrictions comprising one or more of size or location;

indicating to the second node that the second node is to send the second part to the user; and

sending at least the second part sequentially relative to the first part from the second node to the user through a switch, wherein the determining step comprises determining independently by the first node which of a plurality of nodes is the second node using seed information received by the first node.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining step comprises determining by a broker which of a plurality of nodes is the second node.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the indicating step comprises indicating to the second node that the second node is to send the second part to the user by sending a token from the broker to the second node.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the indicating step comprises indicating to the second node that the second node is to send the second part to the user by using a common time reference.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining step comprises determining independently by the first node which of a plurality of nodes is the second node.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the indicating step comprises indicating to the second node that the second node is to send the second part to the user by receiving a token at the second node.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the indicating step comprises indicating to the second node that the second node is to send the second part to the user by using a common time reference.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein the indicating step comprises indicating to the second node that the second node is to send the second part to the user by receiving a token at the second node.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the determining step comprises determining by a broker which of a plurality of nodes is the second node.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the determining step comprises determining independently by the first node which of a plurality of nodes is the second node.

24. The method of claim 14, wherein the indicating step comprises indicating to the second node that the second node is to send the second part to the user by using a common time reference.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the determining step comprises determining by a broker which of a plurality of nodes is the second node.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the determining step comprises determining independently by the first node which of a plurality of nodes is the second node.

27. The method of claim 14, wherein the seed information includes at least one of the number of nodes which contain parts of the content, metadata describing the content, or a common time reference.

28. The method of claim 14, wherein nodes do not share memory.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein memory comprises random access memory.

30. The method of claim 14, wherein the user is participating in an on-demand session, the on-demand session being one of content-on-demand, movie-on-demand, video-on-demand, subscription video-on-demand, free-on-demand, or network-based digital video recording session.

31. The method of claim 14, wherein the content includes multimedia data which is at least one of MPEG, MPEG-2, or MPEG-4 data.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein at least one part comprises at least one Group of Pictures.

33. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one part comprises multimedia content and trick content associated with the multimedia content, and wherein the trick content is used to implement trick mode playback comprising at least one of fast forward or rewind.