CONFLICT DETECTION AND RESOLUTION IN AN ABR NETWORK

• US 20150249622A1
• Filed: 03/03/2014
• Published: 09/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ericsson AB (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Original Assignee: Ericsson Television Incorporated (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Phillips, Chris, Dasher, Charles Hammett, Huber, Michael, Renolds, Jennifer Ann
• Granted Patent: US 10,142,259 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/74 measures in reaction to resource unavailability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/748 Negotiation of resources, e.g. modification of a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/823 Prediction of resource usage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/83 based on usage prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• 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

Abstract

A scheme for managing conflict resolution in an ABR streaming environment with respect to a bandwidth pipe serving a customer premises. In one aspect, when a session request is received from a new ABR client launched in the customer premises that includes one or more existing ABR clients having corresponding streaming sessions, a bandwidth forecasting module is configured to forecast bandwidth requirements with respect to the corresponding ABR streaming sessions after accounting for a bandwidth requirement for the new ABR client'"'"'s session request. A conflict may be detected if any of forecasted bandwidth requirements violates a bitrate threshold policy relative to the corresponding ABR streaming sessions and/or the new session being requested. If there is a conflict, a conflict notification message to the new ABR client is provided and the session request from the new ABR client is rejected.

Claims

1. A method for managing conflict resolution in an adaptive bitrate (ABR) streaming environment with respect to a bandwidth pipe serving a customer premises, the method, comprising:

receiving a session request from a new ABR client launched in the customer premises that includes one or more existing ABR clients, wherein each existing ABR client is engaged in a corresponding ABR streaming session;

forecasting bandwidth requirements for the one or more existing ABR clients with respect to the corresponding ABR streaming sessions after accounting for a bandwidth requirement for the new ABR client'"'"'s session request;

detecting a conflict if any of forecasted bandwidth requirements violates a bitrate threshold policy relative to the corresponding ABR streaming sessions of the existing ABR clients; and

if there is a conflict, providing a conflict notification message to the new ABR client and rejecting the session request from the new ABR client.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the conflict notification message comprises a video-encoded still image of a message that the session request from the new ABR client is being rejected on account of a bandwidth conflict.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the still image is encoded at a particular bitrate.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the particular bitrate for encoding the still image is computed using a Kush Gauge calculation.

5. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the conflict notification message is provided to the new ABR client by way of a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) redirect message generated by an ABR back office that includes a manifest URL for the video-encoded still image.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

determining that there is no conflict relative to the session request from the new ABR client; and

setting up a new streaming session responsive to the session request from the new ABR client.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the session request from the new ABR client includes display device information associated with an external audio/video (A/V) device for rendering content to be streamed.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the forecasting of bandwidth requirements is performed at a premises gateway responsive to a forecasting request from a subscriber policy management node.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the forecasting of bandwidth requirements is performed at a content delivery network (CDN) edge delivery node responsive to a forecasting request from a subscriber policy management node.

10. A system for managing conflict resolution in an adaptive bitrate (ABR) streaming environment with respect to a bandwidth pipe serving a customer premises, the system comprising:

a back office operative to receive a session request from a new ABR client launched by a client device in the customer premises that includes one or more existing ABR clients, wherein each existing ABR client is engaged in a corresponding ABR streaming session;

a subscriber policy management node operative to request, responsive to a message from the back office, one of a premises gateway and a CDN edge delivery node for forecasted bandwidth requirements of the one or more existing ABR clients with respect to the corresponding ABR streaming sessions after accounting for a bandwidth requirement for the new ABR client'"'"'s session request, the subscriber policy management node further operative to detect a conflict if any of forecasted bandwidth requirements violates a bitrate threshold policy relative to the corresponding ABR streaming sessions of the existing ABR clients; and

a conflict management node operative, responsive to a conflict detection message from the subscriber policy management node, to generate a conflict message encoding request to a video message system for facilitating transmission of a still image of a conflict notification message to the new ABR client that the session request from the new ABR client is being rejected on account of a bandwidth conflict.

11. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein the still image is video-encoded at a particular bitrate.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the particular bitrate for encoding the still image is computed using a Kush Gauge calculation.

13. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the encoded still image of the conflict notification message is provided to the new ABR client by way of a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) redirect message generated by the back office that includes a manifest URL for the video-encoded still image.

14. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein the session request from the new ABR client includes display device information associated with an external audio/video (A/V) device for rendering content to be streamed.

15. A premises gateway configured to manage a bandwidth pipe serving a customer premises, the premises gateway comprising:

one or more processors; and

a bitrate forecasting module coupled to the one or more processors, wherein the bitrate forecasting module includes instructions executable by one or more processors and configured to;

forecast bandwidth requirements, responsive to a request from a subscriber policy management node, for one or more existing ABR clients of a customer premises with respect to corresponding ABR streaming sessions after accounting for a bandwidth requirement of a new ABR client'"'"'s request for initiating a new streaming session on a client device; and

generate a bandwidth forecast response message to the subscriber policy management node, the bandwidth forecast response message including bitrates forecasted for the existing ABR streaming sessions and the requested new streaming session based at least in part upon priority weights associated with the existing ABR streaming sessions and the requested new streaming session.

16. The premises gateway as recited in claim 15, wherein the new ABR client'"'"'s request for initiating a new streaming session request includes display device information associated with an external audio/video (A/V) device for rendering content to be streamed.

17. An edge delivery node disposed in a content delivery network (CDN) and configured to manage a bandwidth pipe serving a customer premises, the edge delivery node comprising:

one or more processors; and

a bitrate forecasting module coupled to the one or more processors, wherein the bitrate forecasting module includes instructions executable by one or more processors (1402) and configured to;

forecast bandwidth requirements, responsive to a request from a subscriber policy management node, for one or more existing ABR clients of a customer premises with respect to corresponding ABR streaming sessions after accounting for a bandwidth requirement of a new ABR client'"'"'s request for initiating a new streaming session on a client device; and

generate a bandwidth forecast response message to the subscriber policy management node, the bandwidth forecast response message including bitrates forecasted for the existing ABR streaming sessions and the requested new streaming session based at least in part upon priority weights associated with the existing ABR streaming sessions and the requested new streaming session.

18. The edge delivery node as recited in claim 17, wherein the new ABR client'"'"'s request for initiating a new streaming session request includes display device information associated with an external audio/video (A/V) device for rendering content to be streamed.

19. The edge delivery node as recited in claim 17, wherein the request from the subscriber policy management node is received after a query by the subscriber policy management node to a redirector node disposed in the CDN, the query for determining the edge delivery node managing the bandwidth pipe associated with the customer premises.

20. The edge delivery node as recited in claim 17, further comprising a bandwidth allocation and pipe management module for allocating bandwidth to the customer premises using weighed fair queuing (WFQ) with respect to the ABR streaming sessions.