Adaptive transfer rate for retrieving content from a server

• US 10,110,694 B1
• Filed: 06/29/2016
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Watson, Ryan F., Howard, Craig Wesley, Solapurkar, Chaitanya Ashok
• Primary Examiner(s): Parry, Chris
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stiltner, Weiwei
• Application Number:
  US15/197,438
• Time in Patent Office: 846 Days
• Field of Search: 709213
• 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 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

An edge system receives requests from user devices to retrieves files from an origin server. Instead of retrieving the files as fast as possible, the edge system throttles the retrieval of files to a rate that just exceeds the speed at which the file is played by a browser or media player. The edge system determines an appropriate retrieval rate based on the contents of the file itself. For example, a manifest file associated with the file can indicate a time it takes to play back content and a bitrate of the content. Thus, the edge server can use this information to retrieve a file from an origin server at a rate that is just fast enough to minimize playback interruption. The retrieval rate determined by the edge server therefore does not rely on how fast or slow the user device retrieves the file from the edge server.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a media cache configured to store fragments of content files; and

a server system comprising a processor and memory, wherein the memory includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the server system to;

receive, from a user device, a request for a first fragment of a first content file;

determine whether the first fragment is stored in the media cache;

retrieve a manifest file associated with the first content file from an origin server in response to a determination that the first fragment is not stored in the media cache, wherein the manifest file comprises a playback time of the first fragment and a bitrate of the first fragment;

determine a retrieval rate for the first fragment, wherein the retrieval rate is determined based, at least in part, on the playback time of the first fragment and the bitrate of the first fragment;

request the first fragment from the origin server at a transfer rate that is at least equal to the determined retrieval rate;

receive the first fragment from the origin server; and

transmit the received first fragment to the user device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the server system to:

determine a retrieval time of the first fragment based on the playback time of the first fragment and a time multiplier;

determine a file size of the first fragment based on the playback time of the first fragment and the bitrate of the first fragment; and

determine the retrieval rate based on the retrieval time and the file size.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the server system to determine the retrieval rate regardless of a time taken by the user device to play back a fragment retrieved prior to the first fragment.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the request for the first fragment comprises a desired bitrate of the first fragment.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the server system to retrieve the first fragment from the media cache in response to a determination that the first fragment is stored in the media cache.

6. A computer-implemented method comprising:

as implemented by one or more computing devices configured with specific executable instructions,

receiving, from a user device, a request for a first fragment of a first content file;

determining whether the first fragment is stored in a media cache;

determining a retrieval rate for the first fragment in response to a determination that the first fragment is not stored in the media cache, wherein the retrieval rate is determined based, at least in part, on a playback time of the first fragment and a bitrate of the first fragment;

requesting the first fragment from a server at a transfer rate that is at least the determined retrieval rate;

receiving the first fragment from the server; and

transmitting the received first fragment to the user device.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising retrieving a manifest file associated with the first content file from the server in response to the determination that the first fragment is not stored in the media cache, wherein the manifest file comprises the playback time of the first fragment and the bitrate of the first fragment.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein determining a retrieval rate for the first fragment further comprises:

determining a retrieval time of the first fragment based on the playback time of the first fragment and a time multiplier;

determining a file size of the first fragment based on the playback time of the first fragment and the bitrate of the first fragment; and

determining the retrieval rate based on the retrieval time and the file size.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein determining a retrieval rate further comprises determining the retrieval rate regardless of a time taken by the user device to play back a fragment retrieved prior to the first fragment.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the request for the first fragment comprises a desired bitrate of the first fragment.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein determining whether the first fragment is stored in a media cache further comprises:

determining whether the first fragment at the desired bitrate is stored in the media cache; and

retrieving a manifest file associated with the first content file from the server in response to a determination that the first fragment at the desired bitrate is not stored in the media cache.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

re-encoding the first fragment to a third bitrate between the desired bitrate and the second bitrate; and

transmitting the re-encoded first fragment to the user device.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising retrieving the first fragment from the media cache in response to a determination that the first fragment is stored in the media cache.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the content file comprises one of an audio file, a video file, an audiovisual file, or a literary work file.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon executable program code that directs a media fetcher operating on one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a user device, a request for a first fragment of a first content file;

determining that the first fragment is not stored in a media cache;

determining a retrieval rate for the first fragment in response to the determination that the first fragment is not stored in the media cache, wherein the retrieval rate is determined based, at least in part, on a playback time of the first fragment and a bitrate of the first fragment;

requesting the first fragment from a server at a transfer rate that is at least the determined retrieval rate;

receiving the first fragment from the server; and

transmitting the received first fragment to the user device.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise retrieving a manifest file associated with the first content file from the server, wherein the manifest file comprises the playback time of the first fragment and the bitrate of the first fragment.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a retrieval time of the first fragment based on the playback time of the first fragment and a time multiplier;

determining a file size of the first fragment based on the playback time of the first fragment and the bitrate of the first fragment; and

determining the retrieval rate based on the retrieval time and the file size.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise determining the retrieval rate regardless of a time taken by the user device to play back a fragment retrieved prior to the first fragment.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining whether the first fragment at a desired bitrate is stored in the media cache; and

retrieving a manifest file associated with the first content file from the server in response to a determination that the first fragment at the desired bitrate is not stored in the media cache.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that the user device oscillates between requesting fragments at a desired bitrate and fragments at a second bitrate less than the desired bitrate;

re-encoding the first fragment to a third bitrate between the desired bitrate and the second bitrate; and

transmitting the re-encoded first fragment to the user device.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the first content file comprises one of an audio file, a video file, an audiovisual file, or a literary work file.