Peer-to-peer video on demand techniques

• US 10,085,063 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2017
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hainline, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Dubasky, Gigi L
• Application Number:
  US15/643,530
• Publication Number:
  US 20170311041A1
• Time in Patent Office: 445 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23113 involving housekeeping operations for stored content, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; snloading stored programs G06F9/445; housekeeping operations in file systems, e.g. deletion policies G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44245 Monitoring the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. its availability, bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Techniques for delivering video content are provided. A video distribution service maintains associations of viewer devices that have portions of specific items of video content. As new viewer devices, which lack the specific video content, make requests for the specific items of video content from the video distribution system, the video distribution system identifies a viewer device from which a portion of the item of video content may be acquired. Viewer devices having the requested content are identified by comparing distances between the locations of the requestor device and the other viewer devices of the plurality of viewers to a distance threshold. The first portion of a first item of video content is obtained from a source viewer device and a second portion of the first item of video content is obtained from the video distribution system. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a processing system including a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations comprising;

generating an index that identifies a plurality of media content items accessible from a plurality of media processors for servicing a request for a first media content item of the plurality of media content items;

managing the index to supply, to a requestor device requesting the first media content item, an identifier of a source media processor storing the first media content item, wherein the source media processor is located near the requestor device based on a comparison with a threshold distance, thereby facilitating a peer-to-peer exchange of the first media content item from the source media processor directly to the requestor device;

distributing a key to the requestor device, wherein the key is required for the requestor device to directly connect to peer-to-peer communication services of the source media processor and is presented to the source media processor before the first media content item is delivered, and wherein the key is used to decrypt and play the first media content item; and

instructing the source media processor to remove the first media content item in response to a policy provided with the first media content item by a media content server.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor comprises a plurality of processors operating in a distributed processing environment.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein generating the index further comprises:

crawling a network comprising the plurality of media processors to acquire information about the plurality of media processors and the plurality of media content items accessible from a plurality of media processors.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the information about the plurality of media processors comprises space utilization and availability of each of the plurality of media processors.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

facilitating a peer-to-peer connection between the requestor device and the source media processor storing the first media content item to deliver the first media content item to the requestor device.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the identifier of the source media processor storing the first media content item comprises an IP address of the source media processor.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a physical proximity between the requestor device and the source media processor storing the first media content item; and

comparing the physical proximity to the threshold distance to obtain the comparison.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the determining of the physical proximity between the requestor device is based on a billing address of the requestor device, and wherein the operations further comprise recording a billing event for the requestor device responsive to the source media processor storing the first media content item reporting that the first media content item was delivered to the requestor device.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

comparing geographical locations of the requestor device to geographical profile information in the index associated with the plurality of media processors for servicing the request for the first media content item to obtain the comparison.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

encrypting the first media content item, wherein access to play the first media content item is enabled by way of the key.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the key facilitates access to a service of the source media processor storing the first media content item, and wherein the operations further comprise pre-selecting, by the processing system, the source media processor responsive to the first media content item becoming available, wherein the pre-selecting occurs before the first media content item is available.

12. The device of claim 1, wherein presence of the first media content item at the source media processor storing the first media content item is unbeknownst to a viewer of the source media processor storing the first media content item, and wherein the key for playing the first media content item is not present at the source media processor storing the first media content item.

13. A method comprising:

generating, by a processing system including a processor, an index that identifies a plurality of media content items accessible from a plurality of media processors for servicing a request for a first media content item of the plurality of media content items, wherein a transfer of the first media content item from a video distribution system to the plurality of media processors is not based on a request from a requestor device;

managing, by the processing system, the index to supply, to a requestor device requesting the first media content item, an identifier of a source media processor storing the first media content item, wherein the source media processor is located near the requestor device based on a comparison with a threshold distance, thereby facilitating a peer-to-peer exchange of the first media content item from the source media processor to the requestor device; and

distributing, by the processing system, a key to the requestor device, wherein the key is required for the requestor device to connect to peer-to-peer communication services of the source media processor and is presented to the source media processor before the first media content item is delivered, and wherein the key is used to decrypt and play the first media content item, and play the first media content item.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the index that identifies a plurality of media content items accessible from a plurality of media processors comprises indications of geographical locations of the plurality of media processors and indications of a plurality of media content items of video content stored thereon.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising instructing, by the processing system, the source media processor to remove the first media content item in response to a policy provided with the first media content item by a media content server.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining, by the processing system, a distance between a geographical location of the requestor device and a geographical location of the plurality of media processors storing the plurality of media content items; and

comparing, by the processing system, the distance to a distance threshold to obtain the comparison with a distance threshold.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the determining of the geographical location of the requestor device is based on a billing address of the requestor device, the method further comprising recording, by the processing system, a billing event for the requestor device responsive to the source media processor storing the first media content item reporting that the first media content item was delivered to the requestor device.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising encrypting, by the processing system, the first media content item, wherein access to play the first media content item is enabled by way of the key.

19. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations comprising:

generating an index that identifies a plurality of media content items accessible from a plurality of media processors for servicing a request for a first media content item of the plurality of media content items;

managing the index to supply, to a requestor device requesting the first media content item, an identifier of a source media processor storing the first media content item, wherein the source media processor is physically located near the requestor device based on a comparison with a threshold distance, thereby facilitating a peer-to-peer exchange of the first media content item from the source media processor directly to the requestor device; and

distributing a key to the requestor device, wherein the key is required for the requestor device to directly connect to peer-to-peer communication services of the source media processor and is presented to the source media processor before the first media content item is delivered, and wherein the key is used to decrypt and play the first media content item, and play the first media content item.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein comparing a physical location of the source media processor with the requestor device includes determining of the physical location of the requestor device based on a billing address of the requestor device, and wherein the operations further comprise recording a billing event for the requestor device responsive to the source media processor storing the first media content item reporting that the first media content item was delivered to the requestor device.