High bandwidth streaming to media player

• US 8,970,668 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2010
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Lin, Te Sheng, Ho, M. James, Ruffini, Michael P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Perungavoor, Sath V
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Peter D
• Application Number:
  US12/955,096
• Publication Number:
  US 20120133731A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,555 Days
• Field of Search: 348/42
• US Class Current: 348/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/167 Synchronising or controlling image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/194 Transmission of image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26216 involving the channel capacity, e.g. network bandwidth admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a schedule or organising the servicing of application requests taking into account QoS H04L67/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand

Abstract

A method performed by one or more computing devices includes receiving, by a data center and from a user device via a public network connection, a selection of high-definition three-dimensional (HD3D) content and sending, by the data center and to the user device, a link to a content delivery system to provide the selected HD3D content. The method also includes receiving, by the content delivery system and from the user device, a streaming request for the selected HD3D content; reserving, by the content delivery system, bandwidth, for the selected HD3D content, within a managed network; and sending, by the content delivery system and to the user device, a streaming Internet protocol (IP) address for providing the selected HD3D content over the managed network.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a data center and from a user device via a public network connection, a selection of high-definition three-dimensional (HD3D) content;

authenticating, by the data center and based on the receiving the selection of HD3D content, the user device to receive services via a managed network,

sending, by the data center and to the authenticated user device via the public network connection, a link to a content delivery system, within the managed network, to provide the selected HD3D content, wherein the sending the link to a content delivery system is in response to the receiving the selection of the HD3D content;

sending, by the data center and to the authenticated user device via the public network connection, a link to a license server, wherein sending the link to the license server is in response to the receiving the selection of the HD3D content;

sending, by the license server and to the authenticated user device, in response to a connection initiated via the sent link to the license server, a license that includes a decryption key for the selected HD3D content and information regarding a type of use of content permitted by the authenticated user device;

receiving, by the content delivery system within the managed network and from the user device, a streaming request for the selected HD3D content;

reserving, by the content delivery system when the streaming request is a streaming request for the type of use of content permitted by the authenticated user device, bandwidth to deliver the selected HD3D content over the managed network; and

sending, by the content delivery system and to the user device, a streaming Internet protocol (IP) address for providing the selected HD3D content over the managed network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the user device and via the streaming IP address, a request for the selected HD3D content; and

streaming, to the user device, the selected HD3D content over the managed network.

3. The method of claim 2, where streaming the selected HD3D content includes streaming the selected content in a Multiview Video Coding (MVC) standard.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the user device via the public network connection, a request for a catalog of content available to a user of the user device; and

sending, to the user device, the catalog, where the catalog includes one or more titles of HD3D content and other content available for selection by the user.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

setting up a streaming session, with a streaming device, to send the selected HD3D content to the user device.

6. The method of claim 1, where the selected HD3D content includes stereoscopic video with 1080p resolution with scanning at 60 frames per second.

7. The method of claim 1, where reserving bandwidth for the selected HD3D content includes reserving more than 15 megabits per second (Mbps).

8. The method of claim 2, where streaming the selected HD3D content includes streaming packets, including the selected HD3D content, with guaranteed quality of service (QoS).

9. The method of claim 1, wherein authenticating the user device to receive services via a managed network includes:

authenticating a user or an application residing on the user device.

10. The method of claim 9, where authenticating the user, the user device, or the application includes at least one of:

receiving login information associated with the user, and comparing the login information with stored information to authenticate the user,

receiving device information associated with the user device, and comparing the device information with stored information to authenticate the user device, or

receiving application information associated with the application, and comparing the application information with stored information to authenticate the application.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the user device is one of:

a Blu-ray disc player;

a digital television receiver;

or a digital video recorder (DVR), and wherein the user device provides the request for the catalog of content based on an IP address read from portable media.

12. A device, comprising:

a memory to store a plurality of instructions; and

a processor to execute instructions in the memory to;

receive, from a user device via a public network connection, a request for a catalog of content available to a user of the user device;

send the catalog to the user device, where the catalog includes one or more titles of high-definition three-dimensional (HD3D) content available for selection by the user;

receive, from the user device via the public network connection, a particular selection of HD3D content;

authenticate, based on receiving the selection of HD3D content, the user device to receive services via a managed network,

send, to the authenticated user device via the public network connection, a link to a content delivery server to provide the selected HD3D content, wherein the content delivery server is connected to the user device via a managed network connection, and wherein sending the link to a content delivery server is in response to the receiving the particular selection of the HD3D content;

send, to the authenticated user device via the public network connection, a link to a license server, wherein sending the link to the license server is in response to the receiving the selection of the HD3D content; and

send to the authenticated user device and in response to a connection initiated via the sent link to the license server, a license that includes a decryption key for the selected HD3D content and information regarding a type of use of content permitted by the authenticated user device.

13. The device of claim 12, where the selected HD3D content is encrypted video content.

14. The device of claim 12, where the processor is further to:

send, to the user device, an application that enables the user device to present, to a user, information received from a data server in an interactive format.

15. One or more devices, comprising:

a memory to store a plurality of instructions; and

one or more processors to execute instructions in the memory to;

send, to a data server and via a public network connection, a catalog of content items available to users and a universal resource locator (URL) for a user device to retrieve a selected content item;

receive, from the user device and via the URL using the public network connection, a streaming request for a selected high-definition three-dimensional (HD3D) content item;

reserve bandwidth to provide the selected HD3D content item, via a managed network connection, to the user device;

send, to the user device via the public network connection, a streaming Internet protocol (IP) address for providing the selected HD3D content item over the managed network connection, wherein the sending the streaming IP address is based on reserving the bandwidth to provide the selected HD3D content;

send, to the user device via the public network connection, a link to a license server, wherein sending the link to the license server is based on reserving the bandwidth to provide the selected HD3D content;

send to the user device and in response to a connection initiated via the sent link to the license server, a license that includes a decryption key for the selected HD3D content and information regarding a type of use of content permitted by the user device;

receive, from the user device and via the streaming IP address, a request for the selected HD3D content item; and

stream, to the user device, the selected HD3D content item via the managed network connection when the request is a request for a type of use of content permitted by the user device.

16. The device of claim 15, where the one or more processors are further to:

set up a streaming session, with a streaming device, to send the selected HD3D content item to the user device.

17. The device of claim 15, where the one or more processors are further to:

designate the selected HD3D content item with guaranteed quality of service (QoS).

18. The device of claim 15, where the selected HD3D content item includes stereoscopic video with 1080p resolution with scanning at 60 frames per second.