Localized redundancy for fragment processing

• US 9,197,900 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2011
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TiVo Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MobiTV Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Karlsson, Kent, Barnes, Fritz, Wong, Ian, Hllmarker, Ola
• Primary Examiner(s): Jones, Heather
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rahman, Mohammad J
• Application Number:
  US13/232,888
• Publication Number:
  US 20130064305A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,532 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/177 the unit being a group of pictures [GOP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/30 using hierarchical techniques, e.g. scalability H04N19/63 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/42 characterised by implementation details or hardware specially adapted for video compression or decompression, e.g. dedicated software implementation H04N19/635 takes precedence

Abstract

A live media stream encoding system encodes live media streams into numerous variants of the live media streams each including multiple fragments. Live media streams are delineated, dispatched as jobs, and converted using distributed and dynamically scalable encoder and fragmenter resources without using any centralized encoding management system. Encoded fragments are maintained in shared storage and accessed as needed by devices during playback. Localized redundancy and/or geographic redundancy is provided throughout the system to prevent disruption upon failure of a particular node.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a first portion of a live media stream at a first work dispatcher included in a first data center;

generating a first job associated with encoding and fragmenting the first portion of the live media stream, wherein the first job is placed in an active job queue and a standby job queue, wherein a plurality of redundant encoder and fragmenter resources are operable to obtain the first job from the active job queue to generate a first plurality of encoded fragments corresponding to a first variant of the first portion of the live media stream, the plurality of redundant encoder and fragmenters providing localized redundancy, wherein the plurality of redundant encoder and fragmenters includes distributed and dynamically scalable encoders and fragmenters configured to generate the first plurality of encoded fragments without using any centralized encoding management system;

maintaining the first plurality of encoded fragments in distributed storage;

retrieving the first plurality of encoded fragments using a plurality of fragment servers;

providing a plurality of devices with access to the first plurality of encoded fragments retrieved by the plurality of fragment servers; and

maintaining a separate redundant data center, the redundant data center configured to encode a subset of variants of the live media stream in order to provide geographically separate redundancy in addition to the localized redundancy such that the redundant data center does not run a complete system redundancy.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first portion of the live media stream is also received at a second work dispatcher included in a second data center geographically separated from the first data center.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first work dispatcher is included in a first plurality of redundant dispatchers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of redundant encoder and fragmenter resources are a plurality of virtual machines configured to perform encoding and fragmentation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first portion of the live media stream is a first group of pictures (GOP).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first variant is a version corresponding to a first resolution.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of jobs corresponding to a plurality of variants are placed in the active job queue at the first data center.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein fewer variants are encoded and fragmented at the second data center for the first portion of the live media stream.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein local failures are handled with localized redundancy while catastrophic failures are handled with geographic redundancy.

10. A system, comprising:

an interface configured to receive a first portion of a live media stream at a first work dispatcher included in a first data center;

a processor configured to generate a first job associated with encoding and fragmenting the first portion of the live media stream, wherein the first job is placed in an active job queue and a standby job queue, wherein a plurality of redundant encoder and fragmenter resources are operable to obtain the first job from the active job queue to generate a first plurality of encoded fragments corresponding to a first variant of the first portion of the live media stream, the plurality of redundant encoder and fragmenters providing localized redundancy, wherein the plurality of redundant encoder and fragmenters includes distributed and dynamically scalable encoders and fragmenters configured to generate the first plurality of encoded fragments without using any centralized encoding management system;

distributed storage configured to maintain the first plurality of encoded fragments;

wherein a plurality of fragment servers are configured to retrieve the first plurality of encoded fragments maintained at the distributed storage;

wherein a plurality of devices are provided with access to the first plurality of encoded fragments retrieved by the plurality of fragment servers; and

a separate redundant data center, the redundant data center configured to encode a subset of variants of the live media stream in order to provide geographically separate redundancy in addition to the localized redundancy such that the redundant data center does not run a complete system redundancy.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first portion of the live media stream is also received at a second work dispatcher included in a second data center geographically separated from the first data center.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the first work dispatcher is included in a first plurality of redundant dispatchers.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of redundant encoder and fragmenter resources are a plurality of virtual machines configured to perform encoding and fragmentation.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the first portion of the live media stream is a first group of pictures (GOP).

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the first variant is a version corresponding to a first resolution.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein a plurality of jobs corresponding to a plurality of variants are placed in the active job queue at the first data center.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein fewer variants are encoded and fragmented at the second data center for the first portion of the live media stream.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein local failures are handled with localized redundancy while catastrophic failures are handled with geographic redundancy.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing instructions for:

receiving a first portion of a live media stream at a first work dispatcher included in a first data center;

generating a first job associated with encoding and fragmenting the first portion of the live media stream, wherein the first job is placed in an active job queue and a standby job queue, wherein a plurality of redundant encoder and fragmenter resources are operable to obtain the first job from the active job queue to generate a first plurality of encoded fragments corresponding to a first variant of the first portion of the live media stream, the plurality of redundant encoder and fragmenters providing localized redundancy, wherein the plurality of redundant encoder and fragmenters includes distributed and dynamically scalable encoders and fragmenters configured to generate the first plurality of encoded fragments without using any centralized encoding management system;

maintaining the first plurality of encoded fragments in distributed storage;

retrieving the first plurality of encoded fragments using a plurality of fragment servers;

providing a plurality of devices with access to the first plurality of encoded fragments retrieved by the plurality of fragment servers; and

maintaining a separate redundant data center, the redundant data center configured to encode a subset of variants of the live media stream in order to provide geographically separate redundancy in addition to the localized redundancy such that the redundant data center does not run a complete system redundancy.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the first portion of the live media stream is also received at a second work dispatcher included in a second data center geographically separated from the first data center.