Dynamically adjusting media content cache size

• US 9,942,347 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2016
• Issued: 04/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bishop, Nathan Riley, Carpenter, Erik Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): KRISHNAN, RAJESHWARI
• Application Number:
  US15/163,800
• Publication Number:
  US 20170279914A1
• Time in Patent Office: 685 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1095 Inter-network session transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/20 based on geographic position or location

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for dynamically adjusting the amount of media content to be cached by a client device streaming media from a streaming device. An initial amount of media content is transmitted for caching to the client device from the streaming device. The location of a client device can be used to determine a connectivity interruption probability between the client device and the streaming device. The amount of media content for caching on the client device is adjusted based on the connectivity interruption probability, and the adjusted amount of media content is transmitted to the client device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

initiating, via at least one computing device, a transmission of media content to a client device;

transmitting, via the at least one computing device, an initial amount of the media content for caching via the client device;

determining, via the at least one computing device, a connectivity interruption probability between the client device and the at least one computing device based at least in part on a location of the client device and a bandwidth history associated with the location of the client device;

determining, via the at least one computing device, that the initial amount of the media content for caching is to be adjusted based at least in part on a comparison of the connectivity interruption probability with a predefined probability threshold;

determining, via the at least one computing device, an adjusted amount of the media content to be transmitted for caching according to an estimated duration of interruption; and

transmitting, via the at least one computing device, the adjusted amount of the media content to the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, receiving, via the at least one computing device, a request from the client device to initiate the transmission of the media content to the client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein

the adjusted amount of the media content is greater than the initial amount when the connectivity interruption probability is greater than the predefined probability threshold;

and

the adjusted amount of the media content is less than the initial amount when the connectivity interruption probability is less than the predefined probability threshold.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusted amount of media content is further based at least in part on an amount of available storage on the client device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the connectivity interruption probability is further based at least in part on behavior history data associated with the client device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the location is a first location of the client device at a first instance, and further comprising predicting, via the at least one computing device, a route of movement of the client device based at least in part on the first location and a second location of the client device at a second instance.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the connectivity interruption probability is further based at least in part on a comparison of the route of movement with a network coverage map.

8. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device; and

at least one application executable by the at least one computing device, wherein, when executed, the at least one application causes the at least one computing device to at least;

initiate a transmission of a media content stream to a client device;

transmit an initial amount of the media content stream for caching by the client device prior to playback of the media content stream by the client device;

determine a connectivity interruption probability between the client device and the at least one computing device based at least in part on a route of movement of the client device, a network connectivity history, and a bandwidth profile associated with the route of movement;

determine that an alternate amount of the media content stream is to be transmitted to the client device for caching based at least in part on a comparison of the connectivity interruption probability and a probability threshold;

determine the alternate amount based at least in part on an estimated interruption duration; and

transmit the alternate amount of the media content stream to the client device.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein, when executed, the at least one application further causes the at least one computing device to at least predict the route of movement associated with the client device based at least in part on a first location of the client device, a second location of the client device, and a route history.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein

the alternate amount of the media content is greater than the initial amount when the connectivity interruption probability is greater than the probability threshold;

and

the alternate amount of the media content is less than the initial amount when the connectivity interruption probability is less than the probability threshold.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein, when executed, the at least one application further causes the at least one computing device to at least receive coverage data from the client device, the coverage data comprising at least one of a network coverage type of the client device, network provider information, or a bandwidth capability.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the connectivity interruption probability is further based at least in part on the coverage data.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein, when executed, the at least one application further causes the at least one computing device to at least select a portion of the media content stream to transmit to the client device based at least in part on the alternate amount.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the alternate amount of the media content stream corresponds to at least one of a size in bytes, a playback length, or a number of tracks.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in at least one computing device, wherein, when executed, the program causes the at least one computing device to at least:

initiate a transmission of a media content stream to a client device;

transmit an initial amount of a media content stream to the client device;

determine a connectivity interruption probability between the client device and the at least one computing device based at least in part on a location of the client device and a bandwidth history associated with the location of the client device;

determine an alternate amount of the media content stream to be transmitted for caching based at least in part on a comparison of the connectivity interruption probability with a predefined threshold and an estimated duration of interruption; and

transmit the alternate amount of the media content stream to the client device.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein, when executed, the program causes the at least one computing device to at least select a portion of the media content stream to transmit to the client device based at least in part on the alternate amount.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein, when executed, the program causes the at least one computing device to at least receive a request from the client device to initiate the transmission of the media content stream.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein, when executed, the program causes the at least one computing device to calculate the estimated duration of interruption.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein calculating the estimated duration of interruption is based at least in part on a distance of a lapse of network coverage in a network coverage map.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein determining the alternate amount is further based at least in part on an amount of available storage in the client device.