Client-side bandwidth allocation for continuous and discrete media

• US 7,881,335 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Issued: 02/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Deshpande, Sachin Govind
• Primary Examiner(s): LEE, CHI HO A
• Application Number:
  US11/742,158
• Publication Number:
  US 20080267213A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,373 Days
• Field of Search: 370/465, 370/468, 370/235, 370/230, 709/203, 709/226
• US Class Current: 370/465
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/263 Rate modification at the source after receiving feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• 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 21/4621 Controlling the complexity of the content stream or additional data, e.g. lowering the resolution or bit-rate of the video stream for a mobile client with a small screen arrangements for using the results of monitoring on user's side in broadcast systems H04H60/65; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6373 for rate control , e.g. request to the server to modify its transmission rate flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

The embodiments of the invention relate to client-side bandwidth allocation or rate-lowering processes, systems, and devices. In general, a received continuous stream is received at a lower rate while a discrete media stream is also being received by the client, and having the received continuous stream be received at a previous higher rate when the client is no longer receiving the discrete media stream.

Claims

1. A method of client-side bandwidth allocation, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving, at a first rate, at least one continuous media stream;

receiving a discrete media stream, while receiving the at least one continuous media stream;

if a source of the continuous media stream is adapted to support the continuous media stream at a second rate lower than the first rate, then receiving the at least one continuous media stream at the second rate while receiving the discrete media stream;

if the at least one continuous media stream is from a stored media file and the source of the continuous media stream is not adapted to support the continuous media stream at the second rate, then applying a slowdown playout factor adapted to reduce a playout rate of the at least one continuous media stream, while receiving the discrete media stream;

if the at least one continuous media stream is transmitted as a live stream and the source of the continuous media stream is not adapted to support the continuous media stream at the second rate, then applying an application-level throttling adapted to slowdown transmission of the at least one continuous media stream, while receiving the discrete media stream; and

receiving the at least one continuous media stream at the first rate, after the discrete media stream is no longer being received by the client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second rate of the step of receiving the at least one continuous media stream at the second rate while receiving the discrete media stream, is the lowest rate adapted to be supported by the source of the continuous media stream.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second rate of the step of receiving the at least one continuous media stream at the second rate while receiving the discrete media stream, is the lowest rate at which the quality of the continuous media stream is acceptable based on a condition.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second rate of the step of receiving the at least one continuous media stream at the second rate while receiving the discrete media stream, is based on reducing a delay in receiving the discrete media stream.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second rate of the step of receiving the at least one continuous media stream at the second rate while receiving the discrete media stream, is based on at least one of the following conditions:

media information associated with the at least one continuous media stream, wherein the media information comprises frame rate, bit rate, resolution, and encoding type;

metadata associated with the at least one continuous media stream, wherein the metadata comprises quality labels;

user configuration information; and

a cost function adapted to consider a distortion of the at least one continuous media stream and the delay of receiving the discrete media stream.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second rate of the step of receiving the at least one continuous media stream at the second rate while receiving the discrete media stream, comprises an intermediate rate and a last rate, wherein the intermediate rate is lower than the first rate and the last rate is lower than the intermediate rate.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the discrete media stream comprises two or more discrete media streams, wherein the discrete media stream is based on accumulating the size of each of the two or more discrete media streams, and wherein the discrete media stream is deemed being received based on an earliest reception time among the reception time of the two or more discrete media streams and on a latest reception time among the reception of the two or more discrete media streams.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the slowdown playout factor is based on a native frame rate of the at least one continuous media stream.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one continuous media stream comprises a first continuous media stream and an another continuous media stream, and wherein the step of receiving the at least one continuous media stream at the second rate while receiving the discrete media stream comprises receiving the first continuous media stream at the first rate.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one continuous media stream comprises a first continuous media stream and an another continuous media stream, and wherein the step of applying a slowdown playout factor adapted to reduce a playout rate of the at least one continuous media stream comprises applying the slowdown playout factor to the first continuous media stream.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one continuous media stream comprises a first continuous media stream and an another continuous media stream, and wherein the step of applying the application-level throttling adapted to slowdown transmission of the at least one continuous media stream is for the first continuous media stream.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving the at least one continuous media stream at the second rate while receiving the discrete media stream, if the source of the continuous media stream is adapted to support the continuous media stream at the second rate lower than the first rate, further comprises the steps of:

transmitting a request to the source of the continuous media stream to apply the second rate; and

performing by the source at least one of the following;

transcoding, transrating, packet dropping to obtain the second rate.

13. A client device adapted to be operably coupled to one or more sources via a network, the device comprises:

an input and output interface adapted to enable communication via the client device and the one or more sources; and

a continuous media reception module adapted to receive at least one continuous media stream;

a discrete media reception module adapted to receive at least one discrete media stream; and

a client-side bandwidth allocation (CSBA) process module adapted to;

if a source of a received continuous media stream, from the one or more received continuous media streams, is adapted to support the received continuous media stream at a rate lower than a previous rate, then receive the received continuous media stream at the lower rate while receiving a discrete media stream from the received discrete media streams, and wherein the source is from the one or more sources operably coupled to the client device;

if the received continuous media stream, from the one or more received continuous media streams, is from a stored media file and the source of the received continuous media stream is not adapted to support the received continuous media stream at a rate lower than a previous rate, then apply a slowdown playout factor adapted to reduce a playout rate of the received continuous media stream, while receiving the discrete media stream from the received discrete media streams;

if the received continuous media stream, from the one or more received continuous media streams, is received as a live stream and the source of the received continuous media stream is not adapted to support the received continuous media stream at a rate lower than a previous rate, then apply an application-level throttling adapted to slowdown the transmission of the received continuous media stream, while receiving the discrete media stream from the received discrete media streams;

receive the received continuous media stream at the previous rate, after the discrete media stream of the received discrete media streams is no longer being received by the continuous media reception module.

14. The client device of claim 13, wherein the CSBA module is further adapted to, if the source of the received continuous media stream is adapted to support the received continuous media stream at the rate lower than a previous rate while receiving the discrete media stream, receive the received continuous media stream at the lowest rate supported by the source.

15. The client device of claim 13, wherein the CSBA module is further adapted to, if the source of the received continuous media stream is adapted to support the received continuous media stream at the rate lower than a previous rate while receiving the discrete media stream, receive the received continuous media stream at the lowest rate at which the quality of the continuous media stream is acceptable based on a condition.

16. The client device of claim 13, wherein the CSBA module is further adapted to, if the source of the received continuous media stream is adapted to support the received continuous media stream at the rate lower than a previous rate while receiving the discrete media stream, receive the received continuous media stream at the lower rate based on maximally reducing a delay in receiving the discrete media stream.

17. The client device of claim 13, wherein the CSBA module is further adapted to, if the source of the received continuous media stream is adapted to support the received continuous media stream at the rate lower than a previous rate while receiving the discrete media stream, receive the received continuous media stream at the lower rate based on at least one of the following conditions:

media information associated with the received continuous media stream, wherein the media information comprises frame rate, bit rate, resolution and encoding type;

metadata associated with the received continuous media stream, wherein the metadata comprises quality labels;

user configuration information; and

a cost function adapted to consider a distortion of the received continuous media stream and the delay of receiving the discrete media stream.

18. The client device of claim 13, wherein the CSBA module is further adapted to, if the source of the received continuous media stream is adapted to support the received continuous media stream at the rate lower than a previous rate while receiving the discrete media stream, receive the received continuous media stream at an intermediate rate higher than the lower rate prior to receiving the received continuous media stream at the lower rate.

19. The client device of claim 13, wherein the received discrete media stream is based on accumulating the size of two or more discrete media streams from the received discrete media streams, and wherein the received discrete media stream is deemed being received based on an earliest reception time among the reception time of the two or more discrete media streams and on a latest reception time among the reception of the two or more discrete media streams.

20. The client device of claim 13, wherein the slowdown playout factor is based on a native frame rate of the received continuous media stream.

21. The client device of claim 13, wherein CSBA module is further adapted to receive another continuous media stream at a first rate from the received continuous media streams, wherein the first rate is unchanged even while receiving the discrete media stream.

22. The client device of claim 13, wherein the CSBA module is further adapted to apply a slowdown playout factor to only one continuous media stream of the received continuous media streams, while receiving the discrete media stream.

23. The client device of claim 13, wherein the CSBA module is further adapted to:

transmit a request to the source of the received continuous media stream to apply the rate lower than the previous rate, if the source of the received continuous media stream, from the one or more received continuous media streams, is adapted to support the received continuous media stream at the rate lower than a previous rate.

24. A system comprising:

a source;

a client device operably coupled to the source via one or more network segments,

the client device comprising;

an input and output interface adapted to enable communication with the source;

a continuous media reception module adapted to receive a continuous media stream from the source;

a discrete media reception module adapted to receive at least one discrete media stream; and

a client-side bandwidth allocation (CSBA) process module adapted to;

if the source of the continuous media stream is adapted to support the continuous media stream at a rate lower than a previous rate, then receive the continuous media stream at the lower rate while receiving the at least one discrete media stream;

if the continuous media stream is from a stored media file and the source is not adapted to support the continuous media stream at a rate lower than a previous rate, then apply a slowdown playout factor adapted to reduce a playout rate of the continuous media stream, while receiving the at least one discrete media stream;

if the continuous media stream is received as a live stream and the source is not adapted to support the continuous media stream at a rate lower than a previous rate, then apply an application-level throttling adapted to slowdown the transmission of the continuous media stream, while receiving the at least one discrete media; and

receive the continuous media stream at the previous rate, after the at least one discrete media stream is no longer being received by the continuous media reception module; and

the one or more network segments.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the CSBA module of the client is further adapted to:

transmit a request to the source of the received continuous media stream to apply the rate lower than the previous rate, if the source of the received continuous media stream, from the one or more received continuous media streams, is adapted to support the received continuous media stream at the rate lower than a previous rate; and

wherein the source is further adapted to transmit the received continuous media stream at the rate lower than the previous rate by performing at least one of the following;

transcoding, transrating, packet dropping to obtain the lower rate.