Control Plane Architecture for Multicast Cache-Fill

• US 20140237534A1
• Filed: 02/12/2014
• Published: 08/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Salinger, Jorge, Mao, Weidong
• Granted Patent: US 9,693,079 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/116
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/44 for identifying broadcast stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1014 based on the content of a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21 Server components or server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2365 Multiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2368 Multiplexing of audio and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2389 Multiplex stream processing, e.g. multiplex stream encrypting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/24 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth, upstream requests monitoring of server performance or load G06F11/34; arrangements for observation, testing or troubleshooting for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/266 Channel or content management, e.g. generation and management of keys and entitlement messages in a conditional access system, merging a VOD unicast channel into a multicast channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4353 involving decryption of additional data arrangements using cryptography for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/23
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6408 Unicasting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/643 Communication protocols network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP], H04L65/65
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64723 : Monitoring of network processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of network load traffic related reporting in data switching networks H04L43/062
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A multicast content delivery system can use both multicast and unicast streams to efficiently use available bandwidth to deliver content. Available multicast content can be identified to gateways serving consumption devices, and the gateways can receive requests for unicast content deliver, but honor the requests with multicast group sessions.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

selecting, by a multicast controller computing device, a plurality of versions of a multimedia content to be multicast by each of a plurality of multicast servers, wherein different groups of the versions are selected for different ones of the multicast servers; and

delivering, by the multicast controller computing device, a multicast listing of the selected versions of the multimedia content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting versions of the multimedia content for a first one of the multicast servers based on a geographic area of the first one of the multicast servers.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting versions of the multimedia content for the first one of the multicast servers based on device profile popularity within the geographic area of the first one of the multicast servers.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the selecting further comprises ranking the plurality of versions of the multimedia content according to a time-based criterion.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising delivering incremental updates of the multicast listing after the multicast listing is originally delivered.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the delivering delivers the multicast listing to a gateway device, the method further comprising:

filtering, by the multicast controller computing device and prior to the delivering, the multicast listing according to one or more device profiles identifying capabilities of consumption devices served by the gateway device.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising filtering, by the multicast controller computing device, the multicast listing according to one or more user preferences of users at a premises of the gateway device.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising filtering, by the multicast controller computing device, the multicast listing according to one or more digital rights management capabilities of a consuming device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the multimedia content includes video, and the plurality of versions of the multimedia content comprise different video resolutions of the multimedia content.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a mapping of the multicast servers with termination servers in a network.

11. A method, comprising:

identifying different versions of an audiovisual program;

assigning different groups of the different versions to different ones of a plurality of multicast servers in a multicast content distribution network; and

delivering a multicast listing to each of the multicast servers, wherein each listing identifies an assigned group of the different versions for a corresponding one of the multicast servers.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the assigning further comprises ranking the different versions of the audiovisual program according to device type popularity in respective geographic regions served by the multicast servers.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising filtering a multicast listing for a first multicast server according to device profiles of devices served by a gateway device that is served by the first multicast server.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising filtering a multicast listing for a first multicast server according to one or more digital rights management capabilities of a device served by a gateway device that is served by the first multicast server.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the assigning further comprises ranking different versions of the audiovisual program according to display resolution, and using both the ranked display resolution and the device type popularity to perform the assigning.

16. A method, comprising:

identifying a plurality of content multicast servers, and for each of the content multicast servers, identifying a corresponding geographic area served by the corresponding content multicast server;

identifying device profile popularities within the geographic areas served by the content multicast servers;

identifying different versions of an audiovisual content item; and

assigning different groups of the different versions of the audiovisual content item to different ones of the content multicast servers based on the device profile popularities.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein identifying the device profile popularities comprises identifying video display size.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein identifying the device profile popularities comprises identifying video decryption capability.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising generating a mapping of termination servers to corresponding multicast servers.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising transmitting a multicast setup request to each of the content multicast servers, requesting establishment of multicast sessions for the respective groups of the different versions of the audiovisual content item.