On-demand adaptive bitrate management for streaming media over packet networks

• US 9,473,406 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2012
• Issued: 10/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OptiMorphix, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Penner, Andrew, Koopmans, Frederick, Kidd, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Dennison, Jerry
• Application Number:
  US13/492,032
• Publication Number:
  US 20120317308A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,593 Days
• Field of Search: 709/233, 709/239
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6379 directed to encoder , e.g. for requesting a lower encoding rate

Abstract

A system and method for acquiring media data to be transmitted through a media network to a terminal and receiving a receiver report from the terminal, and estimating the condition of the network using information from the receiver report. Determining a data path based on whether the media network is congested, wherein the data path is a compression data path if the media network is congested, or the data path is a pass-through data path if the media network is not congested; and providing the media data through the determined data path.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

acquiring, at a server, media data to be transmitted through a media network to a terminal;

receiving a receiver report from the terminal;

estimating a level of network congestion based on the receiver report;

determining a data path in the server between an existing compression data path and an existing pass-through data path, based on the estimated level indicating whether the media network is congested, wherein the data path is the compression data path if the media network is congested, and the data path is the pass-through data path if the media network is not congested; and

providing the media data through the determined data path in the server,

wherein,

the compression data path includes a encoder device and

the pass-through data path bypasses the encoder device of the compression data path.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the media data includes a key frame, and the media data is provided through the determined path beginning with the key frame.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a network state estimator based on the receiver report.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the network state estimator is one of:

media time in transit;

bitrate received;

round trip time estimate; and

packet loss count.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein estimating the level of network congestion comprises comparing the network state estimator to a state threshold.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the state threshold is automatically determined by a server.

7. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

acquiring, at a server, media data to be transmitted through a media network to a terminal;

receiving a receiver report from the terminal;

estimating a level of network congestion based on the receiver report;

determining a data path in the server between an existing compression data path and an existing pass-through data path, based on the estimated level indicating whether the media network is congested, wherein the data path is a compression data path if the media network is congested, and the data path is a pass-through data path if the media network is not congested; and

providing the media data through the determined data path in the server,

wherein,

the compression data path includes a encoder device, and

the pass-through data path bypasses the encoder device of the compression data path.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the media data includes a key frame, and the media data is provided through the determined path beginning with the key frame.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7, further comprising instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method, the method comprising, determining a network state estimator based on the receiver report.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the network state estimator is one of:

media time in transit;

bitrate received;

round trip time estimate; and

packet loss count.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein estimating network congestion comprises comparing the network state estimator to a state threshold.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the state threshold is automatically determined by a server.

13. A system comprising:

an adaptive bitrate manager having a memory and one or more processors, the adaptive bitrate manager configured to;

acquire, at a server, media data to be transmitted through a media network to a terminal having a media player;

receive a receiver report from the terminal;

estimate a level of network congestion based on the receiver report;

determine a data path in the server between a compression data path and a pass-through data path, based on the estimated level indicating whether the media network is congested, wherein the data path is a compression data path if the media network is congested, and the data path is a pass-through data path if the media network is not congested; and

provide the media data through the determined data path in the server,

wherein,

the compression data path includes a encoder device, and

the pass-through data path bypasses the encoder device of the compression data path.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the media data includes a key frame, and the media data is provided through the determined path beginning with the key frame.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to determine a network state estimator based on the receiver report.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the network state estimator is one of:

media time in transit;

bitrate received;

round trip time estimate; and

packet loss count.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are configured to compare the network state estimator to a state threshold to estimate the network congestion.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more processors are configured to automatically determine the state threshold.