MANAGING MULTIPLE DYNAMIC MEDIA STREAMS

• US 20110161485A1
• Filed: 12/28/2009
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: George, Sam J., Guillet, Shane C., Sirivara, Sudheer, Freelander, Jack E., Sood, Vishal
• Granted Patent: US 9,294,526 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• 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 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• 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 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

A coordinated adaptive streaming system provides a level of intelligence between adaptive streaming heuristics applied to multiple multi-bitrate streams playing on a client computer at the same time. The system receives a media event that includes multiple multi-bitrate streams and plays two or more of the streams. Each stream registers with the coordinated adaptive streaming system so that the system is aware of each of the streams. The system receives a priority indication from each stream that indicates the priority of the stream relative to other streams associated with the media event. The system uses the received priority indications to make adaptive streaming decisions. Thus, the coordinated adaptive streaming system provides playback that more closely aligns with a user'"'"'s priorities and provides a higher quality experience to a user viewing multiple concurrent media streams.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for monitoring multiple dynamic media streams playing concurrently on a client computer system, the method comprising:

receiving media information that describes multiple multi-bitrate streams;

receiving a priority indication for each stream that indicates a priority of the stream relative to other streams associated with a media event;

starting at least one of the streams described by the received media information;

monitoring the multiple streams to ensure that the streams coordinate to adapt to changing client resource conditions; and

upon detecting over utilized client resources, providing a notification to a lower priority stream to disable playback so that higher priority streams can use the resources currently consumed by the lower priority stream,

wherein the preceding steps are performed by at least one processor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving media information comprises accessing that contains an embedded multiple stream video presentation.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving media information comprises receiving a manifest that includes a list of streams and an indication of each stream'"'"'s playback priority.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring the multiple streams comprises waiting a specified monitor interval between sampling the streams to adapt to changing client resource conditions.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring the multiple streams comprises, upon detecting that a selected stream is not currently enabled, determining whether the selected stream has been re-enabled a threshold number of times before attempting to re-enable the selected stream.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring the multiple streams comprises after enabling a disabled stream, waiting a specified monitor interval before starting additional streams.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring the multiple streams comprises sampling playback performance of a selected stream to determine whether playback of the selected stream satisfies a specified threshold bitrate.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring the multiple streams comprises sampling playback performance of a selected stream to determine whether playback of the selected stream satisfies a specified threshold frame rate.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring the multiple streams comprises, upon determining that a selected stream is enabled and playing back at a threshold level, selecting a next lower priority stream and determining whether to enable the next lower priority stream.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein, providing a notification to a lower priority stream to disable playback comprises notifying each stream lower in priority than the lower priority stream to disable playback.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the priority indication for each stream includes a separate disable stream threshold bitrate and enable stream threshold bitrate.

12. A computer system for coordinating bitrate adjustments of multiple dynamic media streams, the system comprising:

a processor and memory configured to execute software instructions;

a startup component configured to receive information describing two or more multi-bitrate media streams and initialize each stream for playback;

a registration component configured to receive a registration indication for each stream, wherein the registration indication includes priority information that indicates a relative priority of streams;

a playback component configured to manage playback of the streams;

a priority management component configured to maintain the priority information associated with each stream; and

a monitoring component configured to monitor playback of the multiple media streams and adapt playback of the streams in response to one or more resource conditions.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the startup component is further configured to start streams one at a time and allow each stream to complete startup before starting a next stream.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the priority management component is further configured to receive dynamic changes to a priority of at least one stream while the streams are playing.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the monitoring component is further configured to run at periodic intervals and traverse a list of streams to determine whether each stream is playing back at a threshold acceptable bitrate.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the monitoring component is further configured to, if currently playing streams are playing at a threshold acceptable bitrate and there are disabled streams, enable at least one of the disabled streams.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the monitoring component is further configured to, if at least one currently playing streams is not playing at a threshold acceptable bitrate, disable at least one of the currently playing streams.

18. The system of claim 12 further comprising a user interface component configured to receive input from a user that determines at least one priority for at least one stream.

19. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions for controlling a computer system to startup multiple adaptive streams, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause a processor to perform actions comprising:

receiving information identifying multiple streams and their relative priorities for playback;

selecting a stream from the multiple streams for which to begin playback;

starting playback of the selected stream;

sampling resource usage to determine whether the selected stream is playing back at a threshold acceptable quality level;

upon determining that there are adequate resources to playback the selected stream,

selecting a next stream lower in priority to the selected stream, and

starting playback of the selected next stream.

20. The medium of claim 19 further comprising, after starting playback of the selected stream, waiting for a predetermined period to allow the stream sufficient time to start up and reach a steady state of playback before starting playback of the next stream.