DECENTRALIZED MEDIA DELIVERY NETWORK

• US 20130247116A1
• Filed: 04/22/2013
• Published: 09/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: William Hayhurst
• Original Assignee: William Hayhurst
• Inventors: Hayhurst, William
• Granted Patent: US 8,806,555 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/93
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23103 using load balancing strategies, e.g. by placing or distributing content on different disks, different memories or different servers storage management G06F3/0604; allocation of resources considering the load in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/505; techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system G06F9/5083; access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. load balancing, in data networks H04L67/1001
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23473 by pre-encrypting
• 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 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4402 involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content 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 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• 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 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A decentralized approach to delivering a media file to a requesting subscriber in a network of subscribers comprises the steps of segmenting the media file into a plurality of segments and distributing the segments of the media file among the network of subscribers, and responding to a request from the requesting subscriber by directing to that requesting subscriber al of the plurality of segments of the media file. All of the segments are assembled into the media file and displayed or stored by the requesting subscriber.

Claims

1. A subscriber network for delivering a displayable, sequential media file that has a complete duration and that is requested by a requesting subscriber of a network of subscribers, comprising the steps of:

a library storing the complete media file as a plurality of segments, each segment having a duration less than the complete duration and comprising a discrete sequence of the media file such that the assembly of all of the plurality of segments in sequential order is required for displaying the complete media file;

a distribution network connecting the network of subscribers for distributing the plurality of segments of the media file among the network of subscribers for storage on respective units of the subscribers; and

a server in communication with the network of subscribers and having a controller for responding to a request from a requesting subscriber by directing to that requesting subscriber all of the plurality of segments of the media file; and

a requesting subscriber unit configured for sequentially assembling into the complete media file all of the segments that are directed to the requesting subscriber.

2. The network of claim 1 wherein the media file is a complete movie having a chronological length and wherein each segment is a discrete sequence that represents a chronologically ordered portion of the movie that is less than the chronological length.

3. The network of claim 1 wherein the requesting subscriber unit is configured for storing the complete media file in a storage device of the requesting subscriber for subsequent display on demand by the requesting subscriber.

4. The network of claim 1 wherein the library includes copies of some of the plurality of segments of the media file for distributing the copied segments among the network of subscribers in a manner such that each of the copied segments of the media file and the copy is stored on at least two different subscriber units.

5. The network of claim 1 wherein the server includes a module for tracking the location of the distributed segments in the subscriber network.

6. The network of claim 1 wherein the library also stores as segments a plurality of bundles of several discontinuous portions of the media file.

7. The network of claim 1 wherein the segments of the media file are encrypted in a manner that prevents display of the complete media file until all of the segments are sequentially assembled into the complete media file.