Adaptive streaming method and apparatus

• US 9,967,598 B2
• Filed: 11/12/2010
• Issued: 05/08/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Ha, Ho-jin, Kwon, O-hoon, Im, Sung-bin, Zhang, Guanhua, Keum, Ji-Eun
• Primary Examiner(s): Parry, Chris
• Assistant Examiner(s): STILTNER, WEIWEI YE
• Application Number:
  US12/945,498
• Publication Number:
  US 20110125918A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,734 Days
• Field of Search: 709229-245, 725 83-109
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2416 Real-time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/38 by adapting coding or compression rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234327 by decomposing into layers, e.g. base layer and one or more enhancement layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2362 Generation or processing of Service Information [SI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/238 Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidth; Processing of multiplex streams hybrid fiber coaxial [HFC] networks for downstream channel allocation for video distribution H04L12/2801; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/434 Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Extraction or processing of SI; Disassembling of packetised elementary stream demultiplexing of data packets for data networks, e.g. RTP/UDP H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/783 Adaptations for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate

Abstract

A method and apparatus for performing streaming that is adaptive to a streaming environment, using information about a plurality of media data generated by encoding content to have different qualities.

Claims

1. A method of receiving media data, the method comprising:

receiving, from a server, a first file comprising information about attribute information of a plurality of media data and location information of a second file, an identifier of at least one segment in each of the plurality of media data and referencing information of an initialization segment, wherein the plurality of media data are generated by encoding a content to have different properties;

requesting a segment of at least one of the plurality of media data based on the first file, wherein each of the plurality of media data is divided into at least one segment based on time; and

receiving the segment in response to the requesting,

receiving the second file based on the location information included in the first file, wherein the second file includes attribute information of a plurality of external media data and identifiers of a plurality of external segments of each of the plurality of external media data; and

receiving an external segment among the plurality of external segments based on the second file,

wherein the initialization segment is received based on the referencing information,

the initialization segment comprises at least one of a program association table, PAT, or a program map table, PMT, for decoding the at least one media data, and

the first file includes rating information in the form of a uniform resource identifier (URI) for restricting a presentation of the media data to the client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the first file comprises:

transmitting a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request message requesting the server to transmit the first file; and

receiving an HTTP response message including the first file from the server in response to the HTTP request message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first file further comprises information about at least one property of the plurality of media data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first file is configured according to a rating of a user receiving at least one of the plurality of media data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of media data respectively correspond to a plurality of elementary streams.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one data segment from among the plurality of data segments comprises at least one packetized elementary stream (PES).

7. The method of claim 5, wherein each one of the plurality of media data comprises a respective packetized elementary stream (PES) including a respective presentation time stamp (PTS) and a respective decoding time stamp (DTS),

wherein the method further comprises aligning the respective presentation time stamps and the respective decoding time stamps according to reproduction time.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the PAT and the PMT comprises a list of all of the plurality of media data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each one of the plurality of media data is assigned a different respective one of a plurality of packet identifiers (PIDs).

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first file further comprises information about at least one of:

a name, a type, a quality, or a time stamp of each one of the plurality of media data.