Method for dynamic computational resource management and apparatus for implementing the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12034936-B2
Application number	US-202318098534-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 18, 2023
Priority date	Jan 18, 2022
Publication date	Jul 9, 2024
Grant date	Jul 9, 2024

Abstract

A method for managing computational resources allocated for encoding of one or more multimedia content streams for distribution in dynamic mode to viewing devices through a distribution network is proposed, which comprises, by a processing node of the distribution network: obtain, for a multimedia content stream corresponding to a channel distributed to the viewing devices, a value of a computational resource allocation criterion, wherein the computational resource allocation criterion comprises an audience measurement for the corresponding channel; and determine, based on the computational resource allocation criterion, an allocation of computational resources of a computing platform configured for encoding the multimedia content stream.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for managing computational resources allocated for encoding of one or more multimedia content streams for distribution in dynamic mode to viewing devices through a distribution network, the method comprising, by a processing node of the distribution network:
obtaining, for a multimedia content stream corresponding to a channel distributed to the viewing devices, a value of a computational resource allocation criterion, wherein the computational resource allocation criterion comprises an audience measurement for the corresponding channel; and
determining, based on the computational resource allocation criterion, an allocation of computational resources of a computing platform configured for encoding the multimedia content stream;
wherein the allocation of computational resources comprises a number of CPU cores allocated to the channel, and the number Allocation[channel] of CPU cores allocated to the channel is determined by the following:

Allocation[channel]=minAlloc+min (maxAlloc−minAlloc,Step(v)), where v designates a number of viewers measured for the channel, Step(v) designates a step function of v, min(x,y) designates the min function (minimum between x and y), minAlloc designates a minimum computational resource allocation determined for the channel, maxAlloc designates a maximum computational resource allocation determined for the channel, Step(v) designates a step function of v.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the audience measurement comprises a measured number of viewers of the channel.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the allocation of computational resources is further determined based on a minimum computational resource allocation for the channel.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the allocation of computational resources is determined based on a step function of a number v of viewers measured for the channel.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein Step(v) is defined based on └v/Δv┘ where └┤┘ designates a floor operator, v designates a number of viewers measured for the channel, and Δv designates a threshold of number of viewers.

6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
obtaining respective computational resource allocation criterion levels for a plurality of multimedia content streams respectively corresponding to channels in a plurality of channels distributed to viewers;
determining a computational resource configuration of the computing platform, wherein the computational resource configuration comprises respective allocations of computational resources of the encoding platform for encoding content of a multimedia content stream of the plurality of multimedia content streams.

7. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising:
selecting a multimedia content stream in the plurality of multimedia content streams based on the respective computational resource allocation criterion levels; and
determining an allocation of computational resources of the computing platform for encoding the selected multimedia content stream.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein a respective allocation of computational resources for a channel of index i comprises a number of CPU cores allocated to the channel, and the number Allocation[i] of CPU cores allocated to the channel is determined by the following: Allocation[i]=min_allocation[i]+Step(v i ), where v i designates a number of viewers measured for the channel i, Step(v i ) designates a step function of v i , min_allocation[i] designates a minimum computational resource allocation determined for the channel i.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein Step(v i ) is defined based on

⌊

v
i

∑

j
=
1

N

v
j

·

N
cpus

⌋

,

where └ ┘ designates a floor operator, v i designates a number of viewers measured for the channel i, N designates the number of channels for which a computational resource allocation is determined, and N cpus designates a number of remaining CPU cores to be allocated once minimum computational resource allocations have been made for the channels.

10. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the computational resource configuration is determined as an allocation of computational resources that minimizes an overall bitrate of the plurality of multimedia content streams after encoding while maximizing a video quality by minimizing a distortion incurred by encoding the plurality of multimedia content streams.

11. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the computational resource configuration is determined as an allocation of computational resources that minimizes an overall bitrate of the plurality of multimedia content streams after encoding while maximizing a quality of experience for channels corresponding to the multimedia content streams.

12. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising:
determining a cost function J 1 =R 1 +λ·D, where D is a distortion measurement, λ is a Lagrangian parameter, and R 1 is an overall bitrate measurement, wherein R 1 =Σ i=1 N b i (v i ), where N is a number of channels, b i is a bitrate of an encoded multimedia content stream corresponding to a channel of index i, v i is an audience measurement for the channel of index i, and wherein the distortion measurement D is determined based on a distortion measurement and the audience measurement v i .

13. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:
determining a cost function J 2 =R 2 +λ·D, where D is a distortion measurement, λ is a Lagrangian parameter, and R 2 is an overall bitrate measurement, wherein R 2 =Σ i=1 N b i (1+v i ), where N is a number of channels, b i is a bitrate of an encoded multimedia content stream corresponding to a channel of index i, v i is an audience measurement for the channel of index i, and wherein the distortion measurement D is determined based on a distortion measurement and the audience measurement v i .

14. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the distribution network comprises a content delivery network, CDN, the method further comprising: determining a cost function J 3 =R 3 +λ·D, where D is a distortion measurement, λ is a Lagrangian parameter, and R 3 is an overall bitrate measurement, wherein R 3 =Σ i=1 N b i (Σ j=1 M +v i ), where N is a number of channels, b i is a bitrate of an encoded multimedia content stream corresponding to a channel of index i, v i is an audience measurement for the channel of index i, M is a number of regions in the CDN, and k j is a weight value of index j assigned to an edge cache used for distribution in the CDN of the channel of index i, and wherein the distortion measurement D is determined based on a distortion measurement and the audience measurement v i .

15. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the distortion measurement of D is d

Assignees

• Ateme

Inventors

• Moussaoui Abdelmajid
• Guionnet Thomas
• Pejhan Sassan

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

• H04N19/154

  Measured or subjectively estimated visual quality after decoding, e.g. measurement of distortion (use of rate-distortion criteria H04N19/147) · CPC title

• H04N19/164

  Feedback from the receiver or from the transmission channel · CPC title

• H04N19/156 Primary

  Availability of hardware or computational resources, e.g. encoding based on power-saving criteria · CPC title

• H04N19/147 Primary

  according to rate distortion criteria (rate-distortion as a criterion for motion estimation H04N19/567) · CPC title