Architecture for distributed sending of media data

• US 7,614,071 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2004
• Issued: 11/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rovi Technologies Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Baldwin, James Armand, Barrett, Peter T., Green, Dustin L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beliveau; Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stanley; Mark P.
• Application Number:
  US10/800,251
• Publication Number:
  US 20050097213A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,062 Days
• Field of Search: 725/97, 709/226, 709/229, 709/231
• US Class Current: 725/97
• 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 21/2312 Data placement on disk arrays data placement in general G06F3/0604
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2318 using striping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26208 the scheduling operation being performed under constraints
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26216 involving the channel capacity, e.g. network bandwidth admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a schedule or organising the servicing of application requests taking into account QoS H04L67/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• 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 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

Media data is distributed across multiple devices, and decentralized media data dissemination architecture is formed. Multiple respective senders are associated with multiple respective distributed portions of the media data. Multiple schedulers are associated with clients and are capable of scheduling the sending of media data thereto. Schedulers formulate send requests that stipulate particular media data portions and designate destination clients. These send requests are transmitted to the multiple senders in accordance with the associated respective distributed portions in conjunction with the stipulated particular media data portion of each send request. The senders are capable of sending the stipulated particular media data portions of the send requests to the designated destination clients without routing through the schedulers. In a described implementation, a sender and a scheduler are present on each device of the multiple devices.

Claims

1. One or more processor-accessible storage media encoded with processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a system to perform actions comprising:

transmitting a send request from a first device to a second device, the send request designating a destination client and stipulating a media data portion;

ranking the send request based on an associated unique priority of the send request, wherein the associated unique priority is calculated by determining whether a plurality of devices store the media data portion, and wherein the associated unique priority is set to a lower priority if there is more than one device that stores the media data portion, and wherein the priority is set to a higher priority if there is only a single device that stores the media data portion, and wherein if none of the plurality of devices that store the media data portion would send the media data portion if all of the plurality of devices that store the media data portion were considered when calculating the priority, then selecting a single device from the plurality of devices that store the media data portion and calculating the priority based on the selected single device;

ascertaining a threshold priority based on the ranking and responsive to a send bandwidth; and

in response to determining that the associated unique priority of the send request is greater than the threshold priority, honoring the send request by sending from the second device to the destination client the stipulated media data portion in response to the send request, wherein the first device is not the destination client.

2. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, comprising the processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct the system to perform further actions comprising:

transmitting another send request from the first device to the second device, the other send request designating the destination client and stipulating another media data portion; and

sending from the second device to the destination client the other stipulated media data portion in response to the other send request.

3. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, comprising the processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct the system to perform further actions comprising:

transmitting another send request from the first device to a third device, the other send request designating the destination client and stipulating another media data portion; and

sending from the third device to the destination client the other stipulated media data portion in response to the other send request.

4. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 3, comprising the processor-executable instructions wherein the stipulated media data portion and the other stipulated media data portion are both part of a single media data segment.

5. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, comprising the processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct the system to perform further actions comprising:

transmitting another send request from a third device to the second device, the other send request designating another destination client and stipulating the media data portion; and

sending from the second device to the other destination client the stipulated media data portion in response to the other send request.

6. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, comprising the processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct the system to perform further actions comprising:

transmitting another send request from a third device to a fourth device, the other send request designating another destination client and stipulating another media data portion; and

sending from the fourth device to the other destination client the other stipulated media data portion in response to the other send request.

7. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, comprising the processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct the system to perform a further action comprising:

receiving a command at the first device from the destination client to begin streaming a media data asset, the media data asset including the media data portion.

8. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 7, comprising the processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct the system to perform a further action comprising:

scheduling, at the first device responsive to the received command, media data portions for sending to the destination client.

9. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 8, comprising the processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct the system to perform a further action comprising:

transmitting from the first device respective send requests of a plurality of send requests to respective devices of a plurality of devices, each respective device storing a respective media data portion of a plurality of media data portions that form at least part of the media data asset.

10. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the action of transmitting a send request comprises an action of:

transmitting the send request from a scheduler functioning on the first device, the scheduler associated with the designated destination device and responsible for servicing media data requests received at the system from the designated destination device.

11. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, comprising the processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct the system to perform a further action comprising:

receiving the send request at a sender on the second device, the sender associated with the stipulated media data portion and responsible for caching the stipulated media data portion at the second device in random access memory (RAM) thereof and for sending the stipulated media data portion to clients responsive to send requests directed thereto.

12. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, comprising the processor-executable instructions wherein the stipulated media data portion comprises one or more media data sub-blocks of a media data block of a media data segment, the media data block cached in random access memory (RAM) at the second device.

13. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more processor-accessible media comprise at least one of (i) one or more storage media and (ii) one or more transmission media.