System and method for peer to peer video streaming

• US 7,903,652 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2006
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wei, Bin, Reibman, Amy, Xiao, Zhen, Jana, Rittwik, Chen, Yih-Farn, Huang, Yennun, Rabinovich, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Jagannathan; Melanie
• Application Number:
  US11/610,994
• Publication Number:
  US 20080144621A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,545 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/390
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1072 Discovery involving ranked list compilation of candidate peers

Abstract

In an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) system, an IPTV server is configured to receive a request from an IPTV content storage device (CSD) to view a video stream. The IPTV server selects a set of peers for the IPTV CSD, and transmits the set of peers to the IPTV CSD. In the system, a capacity of a fiber to the node (FTTN) switch in a down linking direction is greater than or equal to a sum of a number of simultaneous viewers supported by the FTTN switch plus a number of viewers that receive video streams from peers in the same community.

Claims

1. A system comprising an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)

server configured to:

receive a request from an IPTV content storage device (CSD) to view a video stream;

select a set of peers for the IPTV CSD; and

permit a particular peer to upload only a single IPTV CSD at a time; and

select a number of the peers from the set of peers equal to a rate of the video stream being viewed by the IPTV CSD divided by an upload bandwidth out of the IPTV CSD when there is a sufficiency of free peers having the requested video stream;

transmit the set of peers to the IPTV CSD;

wherein the IPTV server further comprises a configuration to reassign a number of the peers from the set of peers when an already assigned peer that is capable of serving a particular video content is in use by another IPTV CSD;

wherein a capacity of a fiber to the node (FTTN) switch in a down linking direction is greater than or equal to a sum of a number of simultaneous viewers supported by the FTTN switch plus a number of viewers that receive additional video streams from peers in a same community.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the number of simultaneous viewers comprises a maximum number of simultaneous viewers, and wherein the sum is multiplied by an average streaming bit rate for the video stream.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the IPTV CSD includes one or more of an IPTV Set Top Box (STB), a personal computer, and a network storage device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the IPTV CSD receives the video stream from one or more peers selected from the set of peers.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the IPTV CSD receives the video stream from one or more peers selected from the set of peers when network routers coupling the IPTV server to the IPTV CSD are not congested.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of peers for the IPTV CSD is selected from a same community as the IPTV CSD.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the set of peers for the IPTV CSD is in proximity to the IPTV CSD.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the IPTV server further comprises a configuration to transmit the video stream to the IPTV CSD when the set of peers is empty, when the IPTV server has the download capacity, and when there is sufficient bandwidth on a link between the IPTV server and the FTTN switch.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the IPTV server comprises one or more of a national head office and a local video hub office.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the IPTV server further comprises a configuration to:

receive from the IPTV CSD a request to replace a failed peer;

locate a particular peer from the set of peers for the IPTV CSD that distributes the video stream that the IPTV CSD is receiving;

notify the IPTV CSD of the particular peer from which the IPTV CSD can receive the video stream; and

send the video stream to the IPTV CSD when a particular peer from the set of peers is unavailable, when there is a sufficient amount of IPTV server download capacity, and when there is sufficient bandwidth between the IPTV server and the FTTN switch.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the IPTV CSD comprises a configuration to:

receive the set of peers from the IPTV server;

divide the streaming rate of the video stream equally among the set of peers;

calculate which stream segments to receive from which peers in the set of peers;

calculate an amount of buffering required to receive the stream from the peers; and

transmit a request to each peer in the set of peers for the appropriate video streams.

12. A system comprising an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) server configured to:

receive a request from an IPTV content storage device (CSD) to view a video stream;

transmit the video stream to the IPTV CSD when the IPTV server has enough bandwidth to serve the video stream;

calculate a maximum peer bandwidth that can be distributed by peers of the IPTV CSD;

identify peers that have the video stream and uplink capacity to distribute the requested video stream;

calculate a second server bandwidth of the video stream which can be provided by the IPTV server; and

transmit a message to the IPTV CSD, the message including a bandwidth to be obtained from the peers, a peer set to use, and an encoding bandwidth of the video stream;

wherein the maximum peer bandwidth that can be distributed by the peers is determined by subtracting from a total capacity associated with south bound links of an FTTN switch, a download bandwidth due to a download by viewers into the IPTV CSD, and an upload bandwidth due to uploads by peers;

wherein a download bandwidth due to a download by viewers is determined by adding one to a total number of viewers in a community prior to the request from the IPTV CSD, and multiplying the result by an average bit streaming rate for the video stream and an upload bandwidth due to an upload by the peers is determined by adding a total bandwidth obtained by viewers in the community from the peers and a bandwidth that the peers would distribute to the IPTV CSD.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the IPTV CSD includes one or more of an IPTV Set Top Box (STB), a personal computer, and a network storage device.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the identification of peers that have the video stream and uplink capacity to distribute the video stream is determined as a function of a community in which the peers can be found, the video stream to be distributed, and a total bandwidth to be distributed by the peers.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the encoding bandwidth of the video stream which can be provided by the IPTV server is calculated by subtracting a stream bandwidth that the peers can distribute to the IPTV CSD from an encoding rate of the video stream.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the peers that have the video stream are from a same community as that of the IPTV CSD.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the peers that have the video stream are in proximity to the IPTV CSD.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the IPTV server further comprises a configuration to asynchronously monitor a processing load of the IPTV server to determine when the IPTV server load reaches a threshold.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the asynchronous monitoring comprises a configuration to:

determine a maximum additional bandwidth that peers can distribute to the IPTV CSD;

identify peers in a community that can stream the video currently being streamed by the IPTV server; and

calculate a new bandwidth of the video stream to be distributed by the IPTV server.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the identification of peers comprises a configuration to:

identify particular peers having the video stream;

identify a number of the particular peers to use to stream the video to the IPTV CSD;

select one or more of the particular peers in which the video stream is a least popular stream for those selected peers;

sort the particular peers in a decreasing order of popularity of other video streams that the peers are serving; and

select the peers from the decreasing order of the particular peers that currently have the video stream.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein the IPTV server further comprises a configuration to:

receive a request from the IPTV CSD to replace a failed peer;

identify particular peers having the video stream;

identify a number of the particular peers to use to stream the video to the IPTV CSD;

select one or more of the particular peers in which the video stream is a least popular stream for those particular peers;

sort the particular peers in a decreasing order of popularity of video streams that the peers are serving;

send a replacement peer when an available peer is found; and

sending the video stream from the IPTV server when an available peer is not found.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein the IPTV server further comprises a configuration to transmit the video stream to the IPTV CSD when the server is not currently reassigning delivery of video streams from the IPTV server to one or more peers in the peer set to use.

23. The system of claim 12, wherein the IPTV server further comprises a configuration to transmit the video stream to the IPTV CSD when network routers connecting the IPTV server and the IPTV CSD have sufficient capacity.

24. A system comprising an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) content storage device (CSD) configured to:

transmit a request to an IPTV server to view a video stream; and

receive from the IPTV server a set of peers from which to acquire the video stream;

wherein a capacity of a fiber to the node (FTTN) switch in a down linking direction is greater than or equal to a sum of a number of simultaneous viewers supported by the FTTN switch plus a number of viewers that receive video streams from peers in a same community;

wherein a maximum peer bandwidth that can be distributed by the peers is determined by subtracting from a total capacity associated with south bound links of the FTTN switch, a download bandwidth due to a download by viewers into the IPTV CSD, and an upload bandwidth due to uploads by peers;

wherein a download bandwidth due to a download by viewers is determined by adding one to a total number of viewers in a community prior to the request from the IPTV CSD, and multiplying the result by an average bit streaming rate for the video stream; and

wherein an upload bandwidth due to an upload by the peers is determined by adding a total bandwidth obtained by viewers in the community from the peers and a bandwidth that the peers would distribute to the IPTV CSD.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the number of simultaneous viewers comprises a maximum number of simultaneous viewers, and wherein the sum is multiplied by an average streaming bit rate for the video stream.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the IPTV CSD further comprises a configuration to receive the video stream from one or more peers selected from the set of peers only when network routers coupling the IPTV server to the IPTV CSD are not congested;

wherein the set of peers for the IPTV CSD are in proximity to the IPTV CSD.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the IPTV CSD further comprises a configuration to:

transmit to the IPTV server a request to replace a failed peer;

receive from the IPTV server an indication of a particular peer that distributes the video stream which the IPTV CSD is receiving; and

receive from the IPTV server the video stream when a replacement peer is unavailable, when there is a sufficient amount of IPTV server download capacity, and when there is sufficient bandwidth between the IPTV server and the FTTN switch.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the IPTV CSD further comprises a configuration to:

receive the set of peers from the IPTV server;

divide a streaming rate of the video stream equally among the set of peers;

calculate which stream segments to receive from which peers in the set of peers;

calculate an amount of buffering to use to receive the stream from the peers; and

transmit a request to each peer in the set of peers for the appropriate video streams.

29. A system comprising an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) content storage device (CSD) configured to:

transmit a request to an IPTV server to view a video stream;

receive the video stream from the IPTV server when the IPTV server has enough bandwidth to serve the video stream; and

receive a message from the IPTV server, the message including a bandwidth to be obtained from peers, a peer set to use, and an encoding bandwidth of the video stream;

receive a maximum peer bandwidth that can be distributed by peers of the IPTV CSD, the maximum peer bandwidth that can be served by the peers is determined by subtracting from a total capacity of south bound links of an FTTN switch a bandwidth due to a download by viewers into the IPTV CSD and a bandwidth due to uploads by peers;

receive an identification of peers that have the requested video stream and uplink capacity to serve the requested video stream; and

receive an encoding bandwidth of the video stream which can be provided by the IPTV server;

wherein the download bandwidth due to the download by viewers is determined by adding one to a total number of viewers in a community prior to the request from the IPTV CSD, and multiplying the resulting sum by an average bit streaming rate for the video stream; and

wherein the upload bandwidth due to an upload by the peers is determined by adding a total bandwidth obtained by viewers in a community from the peers and a bandwidth that the peers would distribute to the IPTV CSD.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein

the peers that have the requested video stream are from a same community as the IPTV CSD and are in proximity to the IPTV CSD.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the IPTV CSD further comprises a configuration to:

transmit to the IPTV server a request to replace a failed peer;

receive from the IPTV server a replacement peer when an available peer is found; and

receive the video stream from the IPTV server when an available peer is not found.

32. The system of claim 29, wherein the IPTV CSD receives the video stream when network routers connecting the IPTV server and the IPTV CSD are not congested.