RATINGS AND QUALITY MEASUREMENTS FOR DIGITAL BROADCAST VIEWERS

• US 20110289538A1
• Filed: 05/19/2010
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Synamedia Limited
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Begen, Ali C., Ver Steeg, William C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,819,714 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/107
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1867 Arrangements specially adapted for the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6437 Real-time Transport Protocol [RTP]

Abstract

In one system embodiment, a first receive-and-process (RP) system and a second RP system, the first and second RP systems each configured to receive a first broadcast stream corresponding to a service, the broadcast stream comprising either a raw Internet protocol (IP) stream or a non-IP stream, and each further configured to derive a first Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) stream and a second RTP stream, respectively, based on the first broadcast stream, the first and second RTP streams having stream parameters in common, the first and second RP systems each further configured to provide respective first and second RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) reports, the first and second RTCP reports based on the derived first and second RTP streams, the first and second RTCP reports each comprising information associated with a viewer experience, the respective information having a common benchmark as a basis for comparison.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving at a first receive-and-process (RP) system a first stream, the first stream comprising either a raw Internet protocol (IP) stream or a non-IP stream;

deriving a Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) stream based on the first stream; and

providing an RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) report based on the derived RTP stream, the RTCP report comprising information associated with a viewer experience corresponding to the first stream, wherein the information associated with the viewer experience comprises an indication of a service that is presented by the first RP system to the viewer, the service provided by the first stream.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein deriving the RTP stream comprises:

receiving a mapping stream at the first RP system, the mapping stream comprising an association of an upstream-generated RTP stream and the first stream, wherein the derived RTP stream is based on the mapping stream and the first stream.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information associated with the viewer experience further comprises an indication of a quality of service based on reception and processing of the first stream.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating the RTCP report to an upstream network device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein deriving further comprises generating the RTP stream based on first stream parameters of the first stream and communicating to a second RP system that receives the first stream a manner of deriving the RTP stream, wherein second stream parameters of the derived RTP stream are communicated to the second RP system, the communication of the manner of deriving the RTP stream enabling correlation of the provided RTCP report with a second RTCP report provided by the second RP system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein deriving further comprises receiving feedback pertaining to the manner of deriving the RTP stream from the second RP system, the feedback further enabling correlation of the provided RTCP report with the second RTCP report provided by the second RP system.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the second stream parameters comprise one or more of a timing reference, stream source identifier, or a sequence number.

8. A system, comprising:

a first receive-and-process (RP) system; and

a second RP system, the first RP system and the second RP system each configured to receive a first broadcast stream corresponding to a service, the broadcast stream comprising either a raw Internet protocol (IP) stream or a non-IP stream, the first and second RP systems each further configured to derive a first Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) stream and a second RTP stream, respectively, based on the first broadcast stream, the first RTP stream and the second RTP stream having stream parameters in common, the first and second RP systems each further configured to provide a first RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) report and a second RTCP report, respectively, the first RTCP report based on the derived first RTP stream, the second RTCP report based on the derived second RTP stream, the first and second RTCP reports each comprising information associated with a viewer experience, the respective information having a common benchmark as a basis for comparison.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the information comprises ratings, wherein the first and second RP systems are further configured to communicate the first and second RTCP reports, respectively, to an upstream network device for analysis of the ratings.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the information comprises ratings, wherein the ratings include one or more of an indication that the service has been presented by the first RP system and the second RP system to the viewer, absolute channel change history, or relative channel change history.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the information comprises ratings, wherein the ratings include one or more of an indication of a time and duration of presentation of the service by the viewers associated with the first RP system and the second RP system or other viewing patterns.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the information associated with the viewer experience comprises an indication of quality of service responsive to receiving and processing by the first and second RP systems the first broadcast stream.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the stream parameters comprise one or more of a timing reference, stream source identifier, or a sequence number.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the first and second RP systems are in communication with each other, wherein the deriving occurs based on communication between the first and second RP system.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the first and second RP systems are not in communication with each other, wherein deriving further comprises the first and second RP systems each receiving the same header information in the first broadcast stream and each generating the stream parameters based on the same header information.

16. A device, comprising:

a communications interface configured to provide to plural receive-and-process (RP) systems a first broadcast stream corresponding to a service, the first broadcast stream comprising either a raw Internet protocol (IP) stream or a non-IP stream; and

processing logic configured to;

receive plural Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) Control Protocol (RTCP) reports from the plural RP systems, the plural RTCP reports correlated to each other and each derived from information in the first broadcast stream, the plural RTCP reports each comprising viewer experience information associated with the respective plural RP systems, the respective viewer experience information having a common benchmark as a basis for comparison;

compare the received plural RTCP reports; and

provide a result based on the comparison.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the viewer experience information comprises an indication of whether the service has been presented by one or more of the plural RP systems.

18. The device of claim 16, wherein the viewer experience information comprises an indication of ratings for the plural RP systems that presented the service to the viewers.

19. The device of claim 16, wherein the viewer experience information comprises an indication of quality of service by the plural RP systems that received and processes the first broadcast stream.

20. The device of claim 16, wherein the processing logic is configured to provide the result by providing a popularity rating for the service, a quality measurement for the service, other analytics for the service, or a combination of two or more of these to a display device.