DISTRIBUTION OF AN IP-BASED MULTIMEDIA CHANNEL TO NON-IP ENABLED DEVICES

• US 20140351383A1
• Filed: 06/28/2013
• Published: 11/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mamidwar, Rajesh Shankarrao, WAN, Wade Keith
• Granted Patent: US 9,477,814 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/25 with rate being modified by the source upon detecting a change of network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate

Abstract

An apparatus and method for converting an IP-based multimedia channel and distributing the channel to a plurality of non-IP enabled devices based on the channel'"'"'s popularity among the devices. The apparatus identifies a plurality of multimedia channels requested by a group of devices, and determines a data rate for providing each channel to the devices based on a popularity of each channel among the devices. The apparatus uses an adaptive bit rate (ABR) client to receive content segments for a respective one of the multimedia channels from an ABR server at a source data rate aligned with a determined data rate for providing the respective multimedia channel. The content segments are received at the source data rate, and converted by the apparatus to a continuous digital content stream. The apparatus then provides the continuous digital content stream to one or more of the devices at the determined data rate.

Claims

1. A method for distributing an IP-based multimedia channel to a plurality of non-IP enabled devices, comprising:

identifying a plurality of multimedia channels requested by a group of devices;

determining a data rate for providing each multimedia channel to the group of devices based on a popularity of each multimedia channel among the group of devices;

selecting to receive content segments for a respective one of the multimedia channels from a content source at a source data rate aligned with a determined data rate for providing the respective multimedia channel;

receiving the content segments from the content source at the source data rate;

converting the content segments to a continuous digital content stream; and

providing the continuous digital content stream to one or more devices in the group of devices at the determined data rate for providing the respective multimedia channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the continuous digital content stream to one or more devices comprises:

modulating a carrier signal with the continuous digital content stream; and

providing the carrier signal to the one or more devices.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data rate for providing the respective multimedia channel increases in response an increase in a number of devices requesting or viewing the multimedia channel relative to a number of devices requesting or viewing other channels, and the data rate for providing the respective multimedia channel decreases in response a decrease in the number of devices requesting or viewing the multimedia channel relative to a number of devices requesting or viewing other channels.

4. The method of claim 1, selecting to receive the content segments at a source data rate comprises:

identifying a plurality of stream profiles advertised by an ABR server, each stream profile for receiving the content segments for the respective multimedia channel at a different data rate; and

selecting a stream profile corresponding to the source data rate based on the determined data rate for providing the respective multimedia channel.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the stream profile is selected based on a maximum source data rate that can be transcoded to the determined data rate without generating more than a predetermined amount of delay between when the content segments are received from the content source and converted to the continuous digital content stream.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein receiving the content segments from the content source at the source data rate comprises:

sending one or more HTTP requests to the ABR server, each HTTP request being for a respective local content segment; and

receiving the received source content segments from the ABR server according to the HTTP requests.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein converting the content segments into a continuous digital content stream comprises:

removing content headers from each of the content segments and coalescing the content segments.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

monitoring available bandwidth for receiving content segments for the plurality of multimedia channels from the ABR server; and

adjusting a determined data rate for providing one or more of the plurality of multimedia channels in response to a change in the available bandwidth.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the content segments comprises removing a first encryption from the content segments and applying a second device-specific encryption to the continuous digital content stream for at least one of the devices in the group of devices.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the source data rate is selected based on available bandwidth of the network.

11. A computer program product comprising instructions stored in a tangible computer-readable storage medium, the instructions comprising:

instructions for receiving a first plurality of content segments associated with a first multimedia channel and a second plurality of content segments associated with a second multimedia channel, each of the first and second pluralities of content segments being received at a data rate selected from a respective set of data rates advertised by the remote data source;

instructions for converting the first and second plurality content segments to first and second continuous multimedia streams for a plurality of local viewing devices;

instructions for determining a first number of local viewing devices that have requested to view or are viewing the first multimedia channel, and a second number of local viewing devices that have requested to view or are viewing the second multimedia channel;

instructions for adjusting, based on the determining, a data rate for providing the first and second continuous multimedia stream to the plurality of local viewing devices; and

instructions for providing the first and second continuous multimedia streams to the plurality of local viewing devices according to the adjusted data rate.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the instructions for converting the first and second pluralities of content segments to first and second continuous multimedia streams comprise:

instructions for, removing, for each of the pluralities of content segments, content headers from the content segments and coalescing the content segments.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the instructions for providing the first and second continuous digital multimedia streams comprise:

instructions for modulating one or more carrier signals with the first and second continuous multimedia streams; and

instructions for providing the one or more carrier signals to the plurality of local viewing devices.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the first and second pluralities of content segments are received from an ABR server, the computer program product further comprising:

instructions for selecting a first stream profile for the first multimedia channel from a plurality of stream profiles advertised by a first manifest file, each stream profile corresponding to a different data rate for receiving the first plurality of content segments; and

instructions for selecting a second stream profile for second first multimedia channel from a plurality of stream profiles advertised by a second manifest file, each stream profile corresponding to a different data rate for receiving the second plurality of content segments;

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the instructions for receiving the first and second pluralities of content segments comprise:

instructions for sending one or more HTTP requests to the ABR server, each HTTP request being for a respective content segment; and

instructions for receiving the respective content segments from the ABR server according to the HTTP requests.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising:

instructions for receiving each of the respective content segments from the ABR server according to a corresponding playlist provided by the ABR server.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising:

instructions for monitoring available bandwidth for receiving the first and second pluralities of content segments from the ABR server; and

instructions for adjusting the data rate for providing the first and second continuous multimedia stream in response to a change in the available bandwidth.

18. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the instructions for adjusting comprise:

instructions for determining a data rate for providing each multimedia channel based on a popularity of the first and second multimedia channels among the plurality of local viewing devices.

19. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the first and second pluralities of content segments are received from the remote data source in a plurality of data packets over a network.

20. A device for providing multimedia channels, the device configured to:

identify a plurality of multimedia channels requested by a group of devices;

determine a data rate for providing each multimedia channel based on a popularity of each multimedia channel among the group of devices;

select to receive content segments for a respective one of the multimedia channels from an ABR server at a source data rate aligned with a determined data rate for providing the respective multimedia channel;

receive, in a plurality of data packets over a network, the content segments from the content source at the ABR server;

convert the content segments into a continuous digital content stream for transmission at the data rate for providing the respective multimedia channel;

modulate a carrier signal with the continuous digital content stream; and

provide the carrier signal to one or more devices in the group of devices.