System, method and computer readable medium for providing redundancy in a media delivery system

• US 8,607,091 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2011
• Issued: 12/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Asbun, Eduardo, Wallace, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal, Nadeem
• Application Number:
  US13/049,531
• Publication Number:
  US 20110167304A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,000 Days
• Field of Search: 714 1- 3, 714/4.1, 714/4.11, 714/4.12, 714/4.3, 714/4.4, 714/4.5, 714/15, 714/16, 714/18, 714/41, 714/57, 714/774, 714/799
• US Class Current: 714/4.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2007 using redundant communication media
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2035 without idle spare hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2041 with more than one idle spare processing component
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/32 Arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations, e.g. malfunction or breakdown of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/22 using redundant apparatus to increase reliability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/102 using shared medium, e.g. bus or ring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/206 Real Time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/557 Error correction, e.g. fault recovery or fault tolerance
• 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 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26208 the scheduling operation being performed under constraints
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/442 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed, the storage space available from the internal hard disk arrangements for monitoring broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/29; arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information H04H60/35; monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; monitoring in wireless networks H04W24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6375 for requesting retransmission , e.g. of data packets lost or corrupted during transmission from serverARQ protocols H04L1/18; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64723 Monitoring of network processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of network load traffic related reporting in data switching networks H04L43/062
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6473 Monitoring network processes errors for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40

Abstract

In a digital video system, high availability distribution is provided using spare modules such as an integrated receiver decoder, multimedia transcoder and streaming module in support of the primary modules. The primary modules multicast status messages which are monitored by the spare modules. When failure of a primary module is detected, the spare module takes over the role of the failed module, for example by joining the same multicast groups as the failed module and taking over processing of the streams of the failed module. Multiple redundancy schemes are described.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a plurality of primary devices configured to perform a load balance process of input streams of data received by the plurality of primary devices and detect a failure of at least one of the primary devices via an absence of periodic heartbeat messages shared among the plurality of devices; and

upon detection of the failure of the at least one of said primary devices, the remainder of said plurality of primary devices perform at least one function of the failed primary device, the function balanced by and between the remainder of said plurality of primary devices based on a redistribution of the at least one failed primary device'"'"'s present work load, wherein the remainder of said plurality of primary devices are recognized by the system as at least ones not designated as spare devices.

2. The system according to claim 1 wherein at least one primary device of said primary devices comprises at least one multimedia transcoder.

3. The system according to claim 2 wherein said at least one primary device provides a status message and wherein at least another primary of said primary devices determines a status of said at least one primary device from said status message.

4. The system according to claim 3 wherein said at least another primary device determines a failure of said at least one primary device if greater than a threshold number of status messages are not received from said at least one primary device.

5. The system according to claim 3 wherein said at least one primary device multicasts said status message.

6. The system according to claim 3 wherein said at least one another device determines from said status message one or more multicast groups from which said failed primary device is receiving one or more input streams.

7. The system according to claim 6 wherein upon detection of failure of said failed primary device, said another device joins said one or more multicast groups.

8. The system according to claim 3 wherein said at least one another device determines from said status message one or more multicast groups to which a failed primary device is sending processed streams.

9. The system according to claim 8 wherein upon detection of failure of said failed primary device, said another device joins said one or more multicast groups.

10. The system according to claim 3 wherein said status message is provided at a regular period between 0.1 and 10.0 seconds.

11. The system according to claim 1 wherein said at least one primary device and said at least one another device comprise at least one streaming device.

12. The system according to claim 11 wherein said at least one primary device provides a SAP announcement providing status information to said at least one another device and wherein said at least one another device determines a status of said at least one primary device from said SAP announcement.

13. The system according to claim 12 wherein each primary device monitors said SAP announcement and wherein each primary device and each another device share a function of a failed primary device.

14. The system according to claim 1 comprising a digital video system.

15. A system, comprising:

at least one primary upstream device; and

at least another primary upstream device separate from the at least one primary upstream device wherein each of said primary upstream devices are configured to perform a load balance process of input streams of data received by said primary upstream devices and detect a failure of at least one of the primary upstream devices via an absence of a periodic heartbeat messages shared among the primary upstream devices;

upon the detection of the failure of said at least one primary upstream device, said at least another primary upstream device performs at least one function of the failed primary device, the function provided by said at least one another upstream device based on a redistribution of the at least one failed primary upstream device'"'"'s present work load, wherein said another one upstream device is recognized by the system as not being designated as a spare device.

16. The system according to claim 15 further comprising at least one downstream device that:

receives data from said at least one primary upstream device; and

upon detection of failure of said at least one upstream device, connects to said at least one another upstream device.

17. The system according to claim 16 wherein said at least one primary upstream device multicasts to said at least one downstream device.

18. The system according to claim 16 wherein said at least one primary upstream device and said at least one another upstream device comprise an integrated receiver decoder.

19. A method, comprising:

in another device, receiving multicast status messages from one or more other devices separate from said another device wherein any of said devices are configured to perform a load balance process of input streams of data received by said devices and detect a failure of at least one of the devices via an absence of a periodic heartbeat messages shared among each of the devices;

and

upon determining that the at least one device has failed, switching said another device to perform a function of said failed at least one device so the another device performs at least one function of the failed at least one device, the function based on a redistribution of the at least one failed device'"'"'s present work load, wherein said another device is recognized by the system as not being designated as a spare device.

20. A method according to claim 19, comprising multitasking status messages from said one or more devices, said status messages indicating the health of said one or more devices and indicating a performance of said one or more devices.