IP broadcast streaming services distribution using file delivery methods

• US 9,026,671 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2012
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Gillies, Donald W., Lo, Charles N., Luby, Michael G., Stockhammer, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Hussain, Tauqir
• Application Number:
  US13/439,518
• Publication Number:
  US 20120259994A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,126 Days
• Field of Search: 709/231
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1836 with heterogeneous network architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1881 with schedule organisation, e.g. priority, sequence management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/756 adapting media to device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

In one example, a device includes one or more processing units configured to send, via a network, a request to retrieve at least a portion of media content, wherein the media content conforms to dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH), and wherein the request comprises a request that the at least portion be delivered according to a file delivery service, and, in response to the request, to receive streaming data for the at least portion of the media content in accordance with the file delivery service over the network. The device may prepopulate a browser cache with the received data, such that a browser can, in effect, stream data using the file delivery service. The device may initially retrieve data of the media content using unicast, until a switch point of the data received via the file delivery service is reached.

Claims

1. A method of retrieving information for video data, the method comprising:

retrieving a first portion of media content from a first representation in accordance with a unicast protocol, wherein the media content conforms to an adaptive video streaming network protocol; and

retrieving a second portion of the media content from a second representation in accordance with a multicast protocol via a file delivery service, wherein the first portion and the second portion are temporally consecutive in the media content, wherein segments of the first representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a first temporal duration, wherein segments of the second representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a second temporal duration, and wherein the second temporal duration is longer than the first temporal duration.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the second portion in accordance with the multicast protocol comprises either requesting to join an Internet protocol (IP) multicast group or registering to receive broadcast file delivery.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein retrieving the second portion comprises requesting to join the IP multicast group, the method further comprising receiving an IP address for the IP multicast group.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first portion has different coding characteristics than the second portion.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the file delivery service comprises File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE), the method further comprising receiving File Delivery Table (FDT) attributes indicating one or more unicast uniform resource locators (URLs) for the media content.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the second portion comprises receiving the second portion via a file broadcast service over a broadcast media access control (MAC) protocol.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the broadcast MAC protocol comprises enhanced Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS).

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising caching, in local memory, the data for the second portion of the media content received in accordance with the file delivery service.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising, in response to a subsequent request for the at least portion of the media data, retrieving the cached data from the local memory.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein caching comprises:

receiving values for one or more caching primitives in accordance with the file delivery service; and

caching the data for the at least portion in accordance with the values for the one or more caching primitives.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more caching primitives include one or more of a date primitive indicative of a date on which the at least portion of the media content was sent, an expires primitive indicative of when the at least portion of the media content expires, an entity tag (ETag) that identifies a specific version of the media content, and a Cache-Control header indicating that data of the media content is cacheable.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein retrieving the first portion of the media content comprises:

determining whether the first portion of the media content is currently stored in a cache; and

retrieving the first portion of the media content in accordance with the unicast protocol when the first portion of the media content is not currently stored in the cache.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the second portion of the media content follows the first portion of the media content temporally consecutively, wherein retrieving the first portion of the media content comprises:

querying a cache to determine whether the first portion of the media content is present in the cache; and

when the content is not present, implicitly determining that a handover has occurred between a broadcast transport and a unicast transport,

wherein retrieving the first portion of the media content in accordance with the unicast protocol comprises, when the query of the cache indicates that the first portion of the media content is not present in the cache and based on the determination that the handover has occurred;

submitting a file download request to retrieve the first portion of the media content in accordance with the unicast protocol; and

storing the first portion of the media content it in the cache.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the file download request comprises a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first portion of the media content follows the second portion of the media content temporally consecutively, and wherein retrieving the second portion of the media content comprises:

determining that a handover has occurred between a unicast transport and a broadcast transport;

in response to determining that the handover has occurred, subscribing to the file delivery service to retrieve the second portion of the media content; and

storing the second portion of the media content in a cache.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the media content comprises one of a plurality of different media contents, each of the plurality of different media contents corresponding to a respective video channel, the method further comprising:

retrieving and caching the first portions of the plurality of different media contents;

receiving a user-selection of the one of the plurality of different media contents; and

playing the first media contents immediately via a cache hit after a request to fetch the first portion of the media content,

wherein retrieving the second portion of the one of the plurality of different media contents comprises retrieving the second portion of the one of the plurality of different media contents in response to the selection.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising outputting data from the first portions of each of the plurality of different media contents.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising displaying video data from each of the first portions of each of the plurality of different media contents substantially simultaneously.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the media content comprises a second media content of a plurality of different media contents, each of the plurality of different media contents corresponding to a respective video channel, further comprising:

retrieving data of a first media content of the plurality of different media contents; and

receiving a request to change to the second media content after retrieving the data of the first media content,

wherein retrieving the first portion of the second media content and the second portion of the second media content comprises retrieving the first portion of the second media content via unicast and the second portion of the second media content via multicast file download in response to the request to change to the second media content.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the adaptive video streaming network protocol comprises dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH).

21. A device for retrieving information for video data, the device comprising one or more processors configured to retrieve a first portion of media content from a first representation in accordance with a unicast protocol, wherein the media content conforms to an adaptive video streaming network protocol, and retrieve a second portion of the media content from a second representation in accordance with a multicast protocol via a file delivery service, wherein the first portion and the second portion are temporally consecutive in the media content, wherein segments of the first representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a first temporal duration, wherein segments of the second representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a second temporal duration, and wherein the second temporal duration is longer than the first temporal duration.

22. The device of claim 21, further comprising a memory, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cache, in the memory, the data for the second portion of the media content received in accordance with the file delivery service.

23. The device of claim 22, wherein to retrieve the first portion of the media content, the one or more processors are configured to determine whether the first portion of the media content is currently stored in the memory, and to retrieve the first portion of the media content in accordance with the unicast protocol when the first portion of the media content is not currently stored in the memory.

24. The device of claim 21, further comprising a memory for implementing a cache, wherein the second portion of the media content follows the first portion of the media content temporally consecutively, and wherein to retrieve the first portion of the media content, the one or more processors are configured to query the cache to determine whether the first portion of the media content is present in the cache, and when the content is not present, implicitly determine that a handover has occurred between a broadcast transport and a unicast transport, wherein to retrieve the first portion of the media content in accordance with the unicast protocol, the one or more processors are configured to, when the query of the cache indicates that the first portion of the media content is not present in the cache and based on the determination that the handover has occurred, submit a file download request to retrieve the first portion of the media content in accordance with the unicast protocol, and store the first portion of the media content it in the cache.

25. The device of claim 21, further comprising a memory for implementing a cache, wherein the first portion of the media content follows the second portion of the media content temporally consecutively, and wherein to retrieve the second portion of the media content, the one or more processors are configured to determine that a handover has occurred between a unicast transport and a broadcast transport, in response to determining that the handover has occurred, subscribe to the file delivery service to retrieve the second portion of the media content, and store the second portion of the media content in the cache.

26. A device for retrieving information for video data, the device comprising:

means for retrieving a first portion of media content from a first representation in accordance with a unicast protocol, wherein the media content conforms to an adaptive video streaming network protocol; and

means for retrieving a second portion of the media content from a second representation in accordance with a multicast protocol via a file delivery service, wherein the first portion and the second portion are temporally consecutive in the media content, wherein segments of the first representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a first temporal duration, wherein segments of the second representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a second temporal duration, and wherein the second temporal duration is longer than the first temporal duration.

27. The device of claim 26, further comprising means for caching the data for the second portion of the media content received in accordance with the file delivery service.

28. The device of claim 27, wherein the means for retrieving the first portion of the media content comprises:

means for determining whether the first portion of the media content is currently stored in the means for caching; and

means for retrieving the first portion of the media content in accordance with the unicast protocol when the first portion of the media content is not currently stored in the means for caching.

29. The device of claim 26, wherein the second portion of the media content follows the first portion of the media content temporally consecutively, wherein the means for retrieving the first portion of the media content comprises:

means for querying a cache to determine whether the first portion of the media content is present in the cache; and

means for implicitly determining that a handover has occurred between a broadcast transport and a unicast transport when the content is not present,

wherein the means for retrieving the first portion of the media content in accordance with the unicast protocol comprises;

means for submitting a file download request to retrieve the first portion of the media content in accordance with the unicast protocol when the query of the cache indicates that the first portion of the media content is not present in the cache and based on the determination that the handover has occurred; and

means for storing the first portion of the media content it in the cache when the query of the cache indicates that the first portion of the media content is not present in the cache and based on the determination that the handover has occurred.

30. The device of claim 26, wherein the first portion of the media content follows the second portion of the media content temporally consecutively, and wherein the means for retrieving the second portion of the media content comprises:

means for determining that a handover has occurred between a unicast transport and a broadcast transport;

means for subscribing, in response to determining that the handover has occurred, to the file delivery service to retrieve the second portion of the media content; and

means for storing the second portion of the media content in a cache.

31. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to:

retrieve a first portion of media content from a first representation in accordance with a unicast protocol, wherein the media content conforms to an adaptive video streaming network protocol; and

retrieve a second portion of the media content from a second representation in accordance with a multicast protocol via a file delivery service, wherein the first portion and the second portion are temporally consecutive in the media content, wherein segments of the first representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a first temporal duration, wherein segments of the second representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a second temporal duration, and wherein the second temporal duration is longer than the first temporal duration.

32. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, further comprising instructions that cause the one or more processors to cache, in local memory, the data for the second portion of the media content received in accordance with the file delivery service.

33. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 32, wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to retrieve the first portion of the media content comprise instructions that cause the one or more processors to:

determine whether the first portion of the media content is currently stored in a cache; and

retrieve the first portion of the media content in accordance with the unicast protocol when the first portion of the media content is not currently stored in the cache.

34. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein the second portion of the media content follows the first portion of the media content temporally consecutively, wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to retrieve the first portion of the media content comprise instructions that cause the one or more processors to:

query a cache to determine whether the first portion of the media content is present in the cache; and

when the content is not present, implicitly determine that a handover has occurred between a broadcast transport and a unicast transport,

wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to retrieve the first portion of the media content in accordance with the unicast protocol comprises, when the query of the cache indicates that the first portion of the media content is not present in the cache and based on the determination that the handover has occurred;

submit a file download request to retrieve the first portion of the media content in accordance with the unicast protocol; and

store the first portion of the media content it in the cache.

35. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein the first portion of the media content follows the second portion of the media content temporally consecutively, and wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to retrieve the second portion of the media content comprise instructions that cause the one or more processors to:

determine that a handover has occurred between a unicast transport and a broadcast transport;

in response to determining that the handover has occurred, subscribe to the file delivery service to retrieve the second portion of the media content; and

store the second portion of the media content in a cache.

36. A method of outputting information for video data, the method comprising:

obtaining media content conforming to an adaptive video streaming network protocol, wherein the media content includes a first representation and a second representation;

outputting a first portion of the media content from the first representation in accordance with a unicast protocol; and

outputting a second portion of the media content from the second representation in accordance with a file delivery service, wherein the first portion and the second portion are temporally consecutive in the media content, wherein segments of the first representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a first temporal duration, wherein segments of the second representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a second temporal duration, and wherein the second temporal duration is longer than the first temporal duration.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the file delivery service comprises File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) protocol.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising outputting File Delivery Table (FDT) attributes indicating one or more unicast uniform resource locators (URLs) for the media content.

39. The method of claim 36, wherein the adaptive video streaming network protocol comprises dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH).

40. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

receiving a request for the first portion of the media content from a client device, wherein the request comprises a request for the first portion of the media content in accordance with the unicast protocol; and

outputting data for the first portion in accordance with the unicast protocol.

41. The method of claim 36, wherein the first representation has at least one of different coding characteristics than the second representation and different rendering characteristics than the second representation.

42. The method of claim 36, wherein outputting the second portion of the media content comprises outputting the second portion of the media content with the file delivery service via at least one of Internet protocol (IP) multicast and enhanced Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS).

43. The method of claim 36, further comprising outputting one or more caching primitives in accordance with the file delivery service to cause a client device to cache at least one of the first portion of the media content and the second portion of the media content.

44. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

determining a number of subscriber terminals to the file delivery service in a network sector; and

selecting the second representation of the media content based on the determined number of subscriber terminals to the file delivery service in the network sector and bitrates of representations of the media content,

wherein outputting the data of the media content comprises outputting data of the selected representation, and

the method further comprising causing the subscriber terminals to download and cache the selected media segments at the bitrate of the selected representation.

45. The method of claim 44, further comprising:

monitoring the number of subscriber terminals to the file delivery service in the network sector, and

changing the representation of the media content based on the determined number of subscriber terminals to the file delivery service in the network sector and bitrates of representations of the media content, to a higher bitrate when the number of subscriber terminals increases or a lower bitrate when the number of subscriber terminals decreases.

46. The method of claim 44, further comprising:

determining, based on the number of subscribers, a percentage of total users in the sector represented by the number of subscribers;

determining an amount of bandwidth allocated to the sector; and

determining a proportional amount of the bandwidth allocated to the sector based on the percentage of the total users represented by the number of subscribers,

wherein selecting the second representation comprises selecting the second representation when the second representation has a bitrate that can be accommodated by the determined proportional amount of the bandwidth allocated to the sector.

47. A device for outputting information for video data, the device comprising one or more processors configured to obtain media content conforming to an adaptive video streaming network protocol, wherein the media content includes a first representation and a second representation, output a first portion of the media content from the first representation in accordance with a unicast protocol, and output a second portion of the media content from the second representation in accordance with a file delivery service, wherein the first portion and the second portion are temporally consecutive in the media content, wherein segments of the first representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a first temporal duration, wherein segments of the second representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a second temporal duration, and wherein the second temporal duration is longer than the first temporal duration.

48. The device of claim 47, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to output one or more caching primitives in accordance with the file delivery service to cause a client device to cache at least one of the first portion of the media content and the second portion of the media content.

49. The device of claim 47, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to determine a number of subscriber terminals to the file delivery service in a network sector, and select the second representation of the media content based on the determined number of subscriber terminals to the file delivery service in the network sector and bitrates of representations of the media content, wherein to output the data of the media content, the one or more processors are configured to output data of the selected representation, and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the subscriber terminals to download and cache the selected media segments at the bitrate of the selected representation.

50. The device of claim 49, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine, based on the number of subscribers, a percentage of total users in the sector represented by the number of subscribers, determine an amount of bandwidth allocated to the sector, and determine a proportional amount of the bandwidth allocated to the sector based on the percentage of the total users represented by the number of subscribers, wherein the one or more processors are configured to select the second representation when the second representation has a bitrate that can be accommodated by the determined proportional amount of the bandwidth allocated to the sector.

51. A device for outputting information for video data, the device comprising:

means for obtaining media content conforming to an adaptive video streaming network protocol, wherein the media content includes a first representation and a second representation;

means for outputting a first portion of the media content from the first representation in accordance with a unicast protocol; and

means for outputting a second portion of the media content from the second representation in accordance with a file delivery service, wherein the first portion and the second portion are temporally consecutive in the media content, wherein segments of the first representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a first temporal duration, wherein segments of the second representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a second temporal duration, and wherein the second temporal duration is longer than the first temporal duration.

52. The device of claim 51, further comprising means for outputting one or more caching primitives in accordance with the file delivery service to cause a client device to cache at least one of the first portion of the media content and the second portion of the media content.

53. The device of claim 51, further comprising:

means for determining a number of subscriber terminals to the file delivery service in a network sector; and

means for selecting the second representation of the media content based on the determined number of subscriber terminals to the file delivery service in the network sector and bitrates of representations of the media content,

wherein the means for outputting the data of the media content comprises means for outputting data of the selected representation, and

further comprising means for causing the subscriber terminals to download and cache the selected media segments at the bitrate of the selected representation.

54. The device of claim 53, further comprising:

means for determining, based on the number of subscribers, a percentage of total users in the sector represented by the number of subscribers;

means for determining an amount of bandwidth allocated to the sector; and

means for determining a proportional amount of the bandwidth allocated to the sector based on the percentage of the total users represented by the number of subscribers,

wherein the means for selecting the second representation comprises means for selecting the second representation when the second representation has a bitrate that can be accommodated by the determined proportional amount of the bandwidth allocated to the sector.

55. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to:

obtain media content conforming to an adaptive video streaming network protocol, wherein the media content includes a first representation and a second representation;

output a first portion of the media content from the first representation in accordance with a unicast protocol; and

output a second portion of the media content from the second representation in accordance with a file delivery service, wherein the first portion and the second portion are temporally consecutive in the media content, wherein segments of the first representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a first temporal duration, wherein segments of the second representation corresponding to the first and second portions have a second temporal duration, and wherein the second temporal duration is longer than the first temporal duration.

56. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 55, further comprising instructions that cause the one or more processors to output one or more caching primitives in accordance with the file delivery service to cause a client device to cache at least one of the first portion of the media content and the second portion of the media content.

57. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 55, further comprising instructions that cause the one or more processors to:

determine a number of subscriber terminals to the file delivery service in a network sector; and

select the second representation of the media content based on the determined number of subscriber terminals to the file delivery service in the network sector and bitrates of representations of the media content,

wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to output the data of the media content comprise instructions that cause the one or more processors to output data of the selected representation, and

further comprising instructions that cause the one or more processors to cause the subscriber terminals to download and cache the selected media segments at the bitrate of the selected representation.

58. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 57, further comprising instructions that cause the one or more processors to:

determine, based on the number of subscribers, a percentage of total users in the sector represented by the number of subscribers;

determine an amount of bandwidth allocated to the sector; and

determine a proportional amount of the bandwidth allocated to the sector based on the percentage of the total users represented by the number of subscribers,

wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to select the second representation comprise instructions that cause the one or more processors to select the second representation when the second representation has a bitrate that can be accommodated by the determined proportional amount of the bandwidth allocated to the sector.