Dynamic adaptive streaming proxy for unicast or broadcast/multicast services

• US 9,160,779 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2012
• Issued: 10/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Cherian, George, Walker, Gordon Kent
• Primary Examiner(s): SHANG, ANNAN Q
• Application Number:
  US13/536,870
• Publication Number:
  US 20130007814A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,202 Days
• Field of Search: 725105-118, 725/62, 725105- 18, 709217-232, 455/518, 455/519, 455/3.01
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/756 adapting media to device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

Techniques are provided for a dynamic adaptive streaming proxy for unicast or broadcast/multicast service. For example, a method for controlling an encoding format of multimedia content for a multimedia client of a wireless communications network (WCN) includes modifying, at a proxy component of the WCN network entity, a data structure that associates one or more different locators for multimedia content with respective different encoding formats for the multimedia content, to obtain a modified data structure. The method may include controlling an encoding format for the multimedia content provided to at least one multimedia client, at least in part by the modified data structure.

Claims

1. A method for controlling an encoding format of multimedia content for a multimedia client of a wireless communications network (WCN), the method comprising:

modifying, at a proxy component of a WCN network entity, a data structure controlled by an entity residing outside of the WCN comprising different locators for representations of a multimedia content available for transport by the WCN, wherein the representations are associated with respective different encoding formats, to obtain a modified data structure based on compatibility with a service level supported by the WCN; and

controlling an encoding format for the multimedia content provided to at least one multimedia client, at least in part by the modified data structure.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the modified data structure to the at least one multimedia client.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the data structure comprises removing one or more of the different locators and corresponding ones of the different encoding formats.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the data structure comprises adding one or more additional locators and at least one new encoding format.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the encoding format comprises at least one of MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, or H.265, and the at least one new encoding format comprises at least one of MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, or H.265.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising transcoding multimedia content from a content server according to the least one new encoding format.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the data structure comprises adding an attribute to indicate one of a unicast or broadcast transmission mode for respective ones of the different encoding formats.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling the encoding format further comprises selecting one or more encoding formats for broadcasting the multimedia content.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the data structure comprises a Media Presentation Description (MPD) defining addresses for respective media representations including encoding formats according to a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) (DASH) protocol.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising transmitting the multimedia content from the proxy component in DASH segments to the at least one multimedia client, without receiving an explicit request for the DASH segments from the at least one multimedia client.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the proxy component indicating the different locators to the at least one multimedia client using corresponding Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) inserted in a File Description Table (FDT) of a File Delivery Over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) object.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising intercepting requests for multimedia content addressed for delivery to a content server, the requests originating from at least one multimedia client and addressed according to the data structure.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein controlling the encoding format further comprises transforming the requests according to a predefined control scheme to obtain transformed requests, and providing the transformed requests to the content server.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving the multimedia content from the content server in response to the transformed requests, and relaying the multimedia content to the at least one multimedia client.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the proxy component comprises a DASH proxy entity and the WCN network entity comprises a broadcast multicast service center (BM-SC).

16. A system for controlling an encoding format of multimedia content provided to a multimedia client of a wireless communications network (WCN), the system comprising:

means for modifying, at a proxy component of the WCN network entity, a data structure received from a content server comprising different locators for representations of a multimedia content available for transport by the WCN, wherein the representations are associated with respective different encoding formats, to obtain a modified data structure based on compatibility with a service level supported by the WCN, thereby controlling an encoding format for the multimedia content provided to at least one multimedia client.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising means for providing the modified data structure to the at least one multimedia client.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein modifying the data structure comprises removing one or more of the different locators and corresponding ones of the different encoding formats.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein modifying the data structure comprises adding one or more additional locators and at least one new encoding format.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising means for transcoding multimedia content from the content server according to the least one new encoding format.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein modifying the data structure comprises adding an attribute to indicate one of a unicast or broadcast transmission mode for respective ones of the different encoding formats.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein controlling the encoding format further comprises selecting one or more encoding formats for broadcasting the multimedia content.

23. The system of claim 16, wherein the data structure comprises a Media Presentation Description (MPD) defining addresses for respective media representations including encoding formats according to a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) (DASH) protocol.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising means for transmitting the multimedia content from the proxy component in DASH segments to the at least one multimedia client, without receiving an explicit request for the DASH segments from the at least one multimedia client.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising means for indicating, at the proxy component, the different locators to the at least one multimedia client using corresponding Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) inserted in a File Description Table (FDT) of a File Delivery Over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) object.

26. The system of claim 16, further comprising means for intercepting requests for multimedia content addressed for delivery to the content server, the requests originating from at least one multimedia client and addressed according to the data structure.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein controlling the encoding format further comprises transforming the requests according to a predefined control scheme to obtain transformed requests, and providing the transformed requests to the content server.

28. The system of claim 27, further comprising means for receiving the multimedia content from the content server in response to the transformed requests, and means for relaying the multimedia content to the at least one multimedia client.

29. The system of claim 16, wherein the proxy component comprises a DASH proxy component and the WCN network entity comprises a broadcast multicast service center (BM-SC).

30. A system for controlling an encoding format of multimedia content provided to a multimedia client of a wireless communications network (WCN), comprising:

at least one processor configured for modifying a data structure received from a content server comprising different locators for representations of a multimedia content available for transport by the WCN, wherein the representations are associated with respective different encoding formats, to obtain a modified data structure based on compatibility with a service level supported by the WCN, and operating as a proxy component of a WCN network entity between the at least one multimedia client and the content server to control an encoding format for the multimedia content provided to at least one multimedia client; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor for storing data.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for providing the modified data structure to the at least one multimedia client.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein modifying the data structure comprises removing one or more of the different locators and corresponding ones of the different encoding formats.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein modifying the data structure comprises adding one or more additional locators and at least one new encoding format.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for transcoding multimedia content from a content server according to the least one new encoding format.

35. The system of claim 30, wherein modifying the data structure comprises adding an attribute to indicate one of a unicast or broadcast transmission mode for respective ones of the different encoding formats.

36. The system of claim 30, wherein controlling the encoding format further comprises selecting one or more encoding formats for broadcasting the multimedia content.

37. The system of claim 30, wherein the data structure comprises a Media Presentation Description (MPD) defining addresses for respective media representations including encoding formats according to a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) (DASH) protocol.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for transmitting the multimedia content from the proxy component in DASH segments to the at least one multimedia client, without receiving an explicit request for the DASH segments from the at least one multimedia client.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for indicating the different locators to the at least one multimedia client using corresponding Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) inserted in a File Description Table (FDT) of a File Delivery Over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) object.

40. The system of claim 30, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for intercepting requests for multimedia content addressed for delivery to a content server, the requests originating from at least one multimedia client and addressed according to the data structure.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein controlling the encoding format further comprises transforming the requests according to a predefined control scheme to obtain transformed requests, and providing the transformed requests to the content server.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for receiving the multimedia content from the content server in response to the transformed requests, and means for relaying the multimedia content to the at least one multimedia client.

43. The system of claim 30, wherein the proxy component comprises a DASH proxy entity and the WCN network entity comprises a broadcast multicast service center (BM-SC).

44. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising code for modifying a data structure received from a content server comprising different locators for representations of a multimedia content available for transport by the WCN, wherein the representations are associated with respective different encoding formats, to obtain a modified data structure based on compatibility with a service level supported by the WCN, and operating as a proxy component of a WCN network entity between the at least one multimedia client and the content server to control an encoding format for the multimedia content provided to at least one multimedia client.

45. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 44, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for providing the modified data structure to the at least one multimedia client.

46. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 44, wherein modifying the data structure comprises removing one or more of the different locators and corresponding ones of the different encoding formats.

47. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 44, wherein modifying the data structure comprises adding one or more additional locators and at least one new encoding format.

48. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for transcoding multimedia content from a content server according to the least one new encoding format.

49. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 44, wherein modifying the data structure comprises adding an attribute to indicate one of a unicast or broadcast transmission mode for respective ones of the different encoding formats.

50. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 44, wherein controlling the encoding format further comprises selecting one or more encoding formats for broadcasting the multimedia content.

51. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 44, wherein the data structure comprises a Media Presentation Description (MPD) defining addresses for respective media representations including encoding formats according to a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) (DASH) protocol.

52. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 51, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for transmitting the multimedia content from the proxy component in DASH segments to the at least one multimedia client, without receiving an explicit request for the DASH segments from the at least one multimedia client.

53. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 52, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for indicating the different locators to the at least one multimedia client using corresponding Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) inserted in a File Description Table (FDT) of a File Delivery Over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) object.

54. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 44, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for intercepting requests for multimedia content addressed for delivery to a content server, the requests originating from at least one multimedia client and addressed according to the data structure.

55. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 54, wherein controlling the encoding format further comprises transforming the requests according to a predefined control scheme to obtain transformed requests, and providing the transformed requests to the content server.

56. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 55, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for receiving the multimedia content from the content server in response to the transformed requests, and means for relaying the multimedia content to the at least one multimedia client.

57. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 44, wherein the proxy component comprises a DASH proxy entity and the WCN network entity comprises a broadcast multicast service center (BM-SC).