Method and apparatus for improved network optimization for providing video from a plurality of sources to a plurality of clients

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10070197-B2
Application number	US-201414892348-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 20, 2014
Priority date	May 23, 2013
Publication date	Sep 4, 2018
Grant date	Sep 4, 2018

Abstract

A method for improving quality of experience in a communication between a first plurality of video sources (Cam 1 , cam 2 , cam 3 ) to a second plurality of video clients (C 1 , C 2 ) via a video composing module (VSE) in between said first plurality of video sources and said second plurality of clients, and triggered by a dispatching unit (D) controlling which clients and video sources are participating in said communication, and which respective composed videos (VcompC 1 , VcompC 2 ) are to be provided from said video composing module (VSE) to respective clients (C 1 , C 2 ) of said second plurality, comprises the steps of :—receiving from said dispatching unit (D) client related parameters (CP 1 , CP 2 ) indicating display and layout configuration of said respective composed video (VcompC 1 , VcompC 2 ) to be provided to said respective client (C 1 , C 2 ),—identifying a subset of video sources from said first plurality for being coupled to an intermediate video composing module (VSRR)—determining an optimized video feed configuration for the communication of an intermediate composed video (Vcompr) provided by and between said intermediate video composing module (VSRR) to said video composing module (VSE) based on said client related parameters and on network restriction parameters (NC(t)),—adapting the respective video communication session between the intermediate video composing module (VSRR) and the video composing module (VSE) based on the provision of said optimized video feed configuration as a control signal to said intermediate video composing module (VSRR).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. Method for improving utilization of resources in a network between a first plurality of video sources and a second plurality of video clients, said method comprising:
receiving control information from a dispatching unit at a video server controller, the control information indicating which video sources of the first plurality and which video clients of the second plurality are participating in video communications via the network,
receiving client related parameters from said dispatching unit at the video server controller for the participating video clients, the client related parameters indicating respective display and layout configurations for respective composed videos to be provided to the respective participating video clients from a video composing module,
identifying multiple video sources from said participating video sources to be coupled to an intermediate video composing module,
determining an optimized video feed configuration for an intermediate video communication session between said intermediate video composing module and said video composing module based on said client related parameters and network restriction parameters, wherein video feeds from the multiple video sources are combined in the intermediate video communication session based on the optimized video feed configuration,
dynamically adapting the optimized video feed configuration for the intermediate video communication session in response to changes in the client related parameters and the network restriction parameters, and
sending a control signal based on the optimized video feed configuration from the video server controller to said intermediate video composing module, wherein the intermediate video composing module is configured to use the control signal to dynamically adapt the intermediate video communication session in response to changes in the optimized video feed configuration.

2. Method according to claim 1 wherein, for participating video sources not belonging to said multiple video sources, said method further comprising:
determining a further optimized video feed configuration for a further video feed between the corresponding participating video source and said video composing module, wherein the further optimized video feed configuration is based on said client related parameters for the participating video clients and the network restriction parameters,
dynamically adapting the further optimized video feed configuration for the further video feed in response to changes in the client related parameters and the network restriction parameters, and
sending a further control signal based on the further optimized video feed configuration from the video server controller to the corresponding participating video source, wherein the corresponding participating video source is configured to use the further control signal to dynamically adapt the further video feed in response to changes in the further optimized video feed configuration.

3. Method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting changing network conditions, wherein the network restriction parameters are based on the detected changing network conditions,
wherein the determining of the optimized video feed configuration, the dynamic adapting of the optimized video feed configuration, and the sending of the control signal are further performed after the detecting of the changing network conditions.

4. Method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving client feedback information from at least one of the participating video clients,
wherein the determining of the optimized video feed configuration, the dynamic adapting of the optimized video feed configuration, and the sending of the control signal are further performed after the receiving of the client feedback information.

5. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions that, when executed by at least one computer or processor, cause a video server controller to perform the method according to claim 1 .

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein at least one composed video of the composed videos provided to the participating video clients is a composite video that includes video feeds originating from more than one of the participating video sources.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the intermediate video composing module is configured to combine the video feeds from the multiple video sources to form the intermediate video communication session.

8. Method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving the network restriction parameters from a network broker module at the video server controller.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein the intermediate video composing module is configured to adapt the video feeds from the multiple video sources based on the control signal received from the video server controller and combine the video feeds from the multiple video sources to form the intermediate video communication session.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein the control signal is used by the intermediate video composing module to dynamically adapt the intermediate video communication session in response to changes in the optimized video feed configuration.

11. Video server controller for improving utilization of resources in a network between a first plurality of video sources and a second plurality of video clients, said video server controller configured to:
receive control information from a dispatching unit indicating which video sources of the first plurality and which video clients of the second plurality are participating in video communications via the network,
receive client related parameters from the dispatching unit for the participating video clients, the client related parameters indicating respective display and layout configurations for respective composed videos to be provided to the respective participating video clients from a video composing module,
identify multiple video sources from said participating video sources to be coupled to an intermediate video composing module,
determine an optimized video feed configuration for an intermediate video communication session between said intermediate video composing module and said video composing module based on said client related parameters and network restriction parameters, wherein video feeds from the multiple video sources are combined in the intermediate video communication session based on the optimized video feed configuration,
dynamically adapt the optimized video feed configuration for the intermediate video communication session in response to changes in the client related parameters and the network restriction parameters, and
send a control signal based on the optimized video feed configuration to said intermediate video composing module.

12. Video server controller according to claim 11 , wherein, for participating video sources not belonging to said multiple video sources, the video server controller is further configured to:
determine a further optimized video feed configuration for a further video feed between the corresponding participating video source and said video composing module, wherein the further optimized video feed configuration is based on said client related parameters for the participating video clients and said network restriction parameters,
dynamically adapt the further optimized video feed configuration for the further video feed in response to changes in the client related parameters and the network restriction parameters, and
send a further control signal based on the further optimized video feed configuration to the corresponding participating video sour

Assignees

• Alcatel Lucent

Inventors

• Follesa Gianluca
• Van Den Berghe Steven
• Trickey Hemi
• Van Moffaert Annelies
• Diner David

Classifications

• H04N21/2402

  Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available (traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876) · CPC title

• H04L65/80

  Responding to QoS · CPC title

• H04N21/64769

  for rate control (flow control in packet networks H04L47/10) · CPC title

• H04N7/181

  for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources · CPC title

• H04N21/25825

  involving client display capabilities, e.g. screen resolution of a mobile phone (optimising the visualisation of content during browsing in the Internet G06F16/9577; processing of terminal status or physical abilities in wireless networks H04W8/22; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06) · CPC title