Method and apparatus for a fault resilient collaborative media serving array

• US 8,972,600 B2
• Filed: 05/20/2009
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• 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:
  US12/469,294
• Publication Number:
  US 20090225649A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,113 Days
• Field of Search: 709/608, 709/235, 709/231, 709/217, 711/108
• 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 method for recovering from fault in a content serving array comprising at least a first node, a second node, and a third node, the method comprising:

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

allocating the first part to the first node;

allocating the second part to the second node;

sending the content successively and chronologically in-order as an ordered stream of parts corresponding to the ordered list by;

indicating to the first node that it should send the first part to a client device;

failing to receive by the second node an indication that the first node has sent the first part to the client device;

indicating to the third node that it should send the first part to the client device;

sending by the third node the first part to the client device; and

sending by the second node the second part to the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicating to the first node comprises indicating to the first node that it should send the first part to the user by sending a token to the first node.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicating to the first node comprises indicating to the first node that it should send the first part to the user by using a common time reference.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the failing comprises failing to receive at the second node, within a predetermined time, a token indicating that the first node has sent the first part to the client device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicating to the third node comprises indicating to the third node that it should send the first part to the user by sending a token to the third node.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicating to the third node comprises indicating to the third node that it should send the first part to the user by using a common time reference.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining independently by the second node that the third node should send the first part to the client device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining by a broker that the third node should send the first part to the client device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the third node is the second node.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising reallocating the first part to the third node.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device buffers at least some of the received content.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device presents received parts in the order that they are received.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device is not aware that the content is being delivered from more than one node.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the nodes do not share memory.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one part includes trick content for implementing trick mode playback.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating the parts among the first node, the second node, and the third node using a deterministic algorithm.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of allocating the parts among the first node, the second node, and the third node using a non-deterministic algorithm.