Multisource media delivery systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12081841-B2
Application number	US-202118256987-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2021
Priority date	Dec 16, 2020
Publication date	Sep 3, 2024
Grant date	Sep 3, 2024

Abstract

A method for delivering media content to one or more clients over a distributed system is disclosed. The method may include generating a plurality of network-coded symbols from a plurality of original symbols representing a first media asset. The method may further include generating an original plurality of coded variants of the first media asset. The method may further include distributing a first coded variant of the original plurality of coded variants to a first cache on a first server device for storage in the first cache. The method may further include distributing a second coded variant of the original plurality of coded variants to a second cache on a second server device for storage in the second cache.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for delivering media content to one or more clients over a distributed system, the method comprising:
at a first device:
generating a plurality of network-coded symbols from a plurality of original symbols representing a first media asset;
generating an original plurality of coded variants of the first media asset,
wherein each coded variant includes one or more symbols that include at least one of (i) one or more original symbols of the plurality of original symbols and (ii) one or more network-coded symbols of the plurality of network-coded symbols, and distributing a first coded variant of the original plurality of coded variants to a first cache on a first server device for storage in the first cache; and

distributing a second coded variant of the original plurality of coded variants to a second cache on a second server device for storage in the second cache.

2. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein first transmitted data including at least one of (i) a first network-coded symbol from the first coded variant and (ii) a first recoded symbol based on the first coded variant is configured to be transmitted from the first cache to a client device;
wherein second transmitted data including at least one of (i) a second network-coded symbol from the second coded variant and (ii) a second recoded symbol based on the second coded variant is configured to be transmitted from the second cache to the client device concurrently with transmission of the first transmitted data from the first cache; and
wherein the first transmitted data and the second transmitted data are configured to be transmitted to the client device via different communication links.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the different communication links include at least one of:
different channels of a single communication modality, and
different communication modalities.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
generating, with the first cache, a first recoded variant based on the first coded variant, wherein the first recoded variant includes one or more first recoded symbols that include the first recoded symbol based on the first coded variant;
wherein the first recoded variant is functionally-equivalent to the coded variants of the original plurality of coded variants such that an amount of any data that exceeds a threshold amount of data and that is drawn from the first recoded variant or any one or more other coded variants allows for decoding of the amount of any data to recover the first media asset.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein generating the first recoded variant based on the first coded variant comprises:
decoding, with the first cache, network-coded symbols from the first coded variant to determine the original symbols represented by the network-coded symbols from the first coded variant, and
generating, at the first cache and using network coding, the one or more first recoded symbols from the original symbols represented by the network-coded symbols from the first coded variant.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein generating the first recoded variant based on the first coded variant comprises:
generating, at the first cache and using network coding, the one or more first recoded symbols from network-coded symbols from the first coded variant.

7. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
distributing, with the first cache, the first recoded variant to a third cache on the first server device, the second server device, or an additional server device for storage in the third cache.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the third cache does not have a direct communication path with the first device.

9. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving, by each of the first cache and the second cache, a request indicating that the client device has requested consumption of the first media asset;
in response to the first cache receiving the request, initiating transmission, from the first cache, of the first transmitted data to the client device; and
in response to the second cache receiving the request, initiating transmission, from the second cache, of the second transmitted data to the client device.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the transmission of the first transmitted data from the first cache and the transmission of the second transmitted data from the second cache occur without the first cache and the second cache receiving a portion of the first media asset after the request is received by the first cache and the second cache.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein generating the original plurality of coded variants includes:
generating the first coded variant to include a first predetermined amount of symbols based on a first storage budget of the first cache; and
generating the second coded variant to include a second predetermined amount of symbols based on a second storage budget of the second cache.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the original plurality of coded variants includes at least one of:
a full-size coded variant that is configured to independently admit recovery of the first media asset through network decoding; and
a partial coded variant that is not configured to independently admit recovery of the first media asset through network decoding.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein each coded variant is functionally-equivalent such that an amount of any data that exceeds a threshold amount of data and that is drawn from any one or more coded variants allows for decoding of the amount of any data to recover the first media asset.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more symbols in each coded variant is linearly independent from each of the other one or more symbols in a respective coded variant.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs configured to be executed by one or more electronic processors of an electronic device including a network interface, the one or more programs including instructions for: performing the method of claim 1 .

16. An electronic device, comprising:
a network interface;
one or more electronic processors; and
a memory storing one or more programs configured to be executed by the one or more electronic processors, the one or more programs including instructions for performing the method of claim 1 .

Assignees

• Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corp

Inventors

• Riedmiller Jeffrey
• Yu Mingchao
• Cloud Jason Michael

Classifications

• H04N21/2183

  Cache memory {(caches in web servers or browsers G06F16/9574; intermediate storage and caching in data networks H04L67/568)} · CPC title

• H04N21/6131

  involving transmission via a mobile phone network (wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006) · CPC title

• H04N21/60 Primary

  Network structure or processes for video distribution between server and client or between remote clients; Control signalling between clients, server and network components; Transmission of management data between server and client {, e.g. sending from server to client commands for recording incoming content stream}; Communication details between server and client · CPC title

• H04N21/442 Primary

  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 title