System and method for effectuating fast channel change in an adaptive streaming environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12167074-B2
Application number	US-202217947950-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 19, 2022
Priority date	Sep 25, 2013
Publication date	Dec 10, 2024
Grant date	Dec 10, 2024

Abstract

A system and method for effectuating fast channel change in an adaptive streaming environment. A plurality of adjacent channels may be predicted relative to a current streaming channel engaged by a client device. Upon prioritizing the adjacent channels, the client device may be configured to pre-fetch metadata and initialization information for a subset of the prioritized adjacent channels based on bandwidth conditions, video player buffer status, etc. When a channel is changed, the client device is operative to use the pre-fetched data to quickly obtain encoded media content at a select bitrate for rendering.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device, comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more storage devices coupled to the one or more processors, wherein the one or more storage devices include instructions executable by the one or more processors and configured to, when executed, cause the electronic device to:
determine one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content relative to a current streaming adaptively streamed content of the electronic device, the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content being determined responsive to monitoring of a bandwidth condition relative to a network connection between the electronic device and a content delivery network;
pre-fetch metadata information associated with the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content;
responsive to the pre-fetched metadata information, pre-fetch and store initialization information for the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content; and
if the current streaming adaptively streamed content is changed to a new streaming adaptively streamed content, use the pre-fetched initialization information to fetch encoded media content pertaining to the new streaming adaptively streamed content, the encoded media content having segments of a first duration; and
after determining that the user has remained on the new streaming adaptively streamed content for a select time period, send a request for segments of the encoded media content of a second duration.

2. The electronic device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the one or more storage devices further include instructions executable by the one or more processors and configured to, when executed, cause the electronic device to:
monitor buffer conditions, wherein the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content are determined further responsive to at least one of the buffer conditions and decoder processing conditions of the electronic device.

3. The electronic device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the metadata information comprises manifest information associated with the respective one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content.

4. The electronic device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the initialization information corresponding to the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content comprises at least one of a Sequence Parameters Set, SPS, a Picture Parameters Set, PPS, one or more codec headers, and data necessary to decode slices of frames.

5. The electronic device as recited in claim 4 , wherein the one or more codec headers comprise at least one of MPEG-2 sequence headers, High Efficiency Video Coding, HEVC, headers, and AC3 audio headers.

6. The electronic device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content are determined as at least one of a first number of consecutive adaptively streamed content above the current streaming adaptively streamed content and a second number of consecutive adaptively streamed content below the current streaming adaptively streamed content, and further wherein the first number and the second number respectively range from 0 to a quantity based on the network connection's bandwidth condition.

7. The electronic device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content are determined as a group of adaptively streamed content that belong to a content category to which the current streaming adaptively streamed content also belongs.

8. The electronic device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content are determined based on one or more of: predictive channel surfing behavior, channel categorization, adaptive learning, pattern recognition, and user viewing habits.

9. The electronic device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the one or more storage devices further include instructions executable by the one or more processors and configured to, when executed, cause the electronic device to:
pre-fetch the encoded media content of the respective one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content using the pre-fetched initialization information;
pre-decode the encoded media content; and
render the pre-decoded media content to be displayed immediately if the current streaming adaptively streamed content is changed to a new streaming adaptively streamed content belonging to the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content.

10. The electronic device as recited in claim 9 , wherein the pre-fetched media content of the respective one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content comprises media content segments encoded at a low bit rate.

11. The electronic device as recited in claim 10 , wherein the one or more storage devices further include instructions executable by the one or more processors and configured to, when executed, cause the electronic device to:
ascertain that a user is in a “viewing” mode after determining that the user has remained on the new streaming adaptively streamed content for the select time period:
send a request for streaming media content encoded at higher bit rates; and
continue to monitor at least one of the bandwidth conditions of the network connection, video buffer conditions and decoder processing conditions, to determine one or more additional adjacent adaptively streamed content relative to the new streaming adaptively streamed content.

12. The electronic device as recited in claim 10 , wherein the one or more storage devices further include instructions executable by the one or more processors and configured to, when executed, cause the electronic device to send a request for streaming media content for the new streaming adaptively streamed content in larger segments.

13. A method performed by an electronic device, the method comprising:
determining one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content relative to a current streaming adaptively streamed content of the electronic device, the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content being determined responsive to monitoring of a bandwidth condition relative to a network connection between the electronic device and a content delivery network;
pre-fetching metadata information associated with the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content;
responsive to the pre-fetched metadata information, pre-fetching and storing initialization information for the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content; and
if the current streaming adaptively streamed content is changed to a new streaming adaptively streamed content, using the pre-fetched initialization information to fetch encoded media content pertaining to the new streaming adaptively streamed content, the encoded media content having segments of a first duration; and
after determining that the user has remained on the new streaming adaptively streamed content for a select time period, send a request for segments of the encoded media content of a second duration.

14. The method as recited in claim 13 , further comprising:
monitoring buffer conditions, wherein the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content are determined further responsive to at least one of the buffer conditions and decoder processing conditions of the electronic device.

15. The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content are determined as a group of adaptively streamed content that belong to a content category to which the current streaming adaptively streamed content also belongs.

16. The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein the one or more adjacent adaptively streamed content are determined based on one or more of: predictive channel surfing behavior,

Assignees

• Ericsson Ab

Inventors

• Phillips Chris
• Dasher Charles Hammett
• Robertson Mark
• Forsman Robert Hammond
• Reynolds Jennifer Ann

Classifications

• H04L65/762

  at the source  (reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355) · CPC title

• H04L65/612

  for unicast · CPC title

• H04L65/70

  Media network packetisation · CPC title

• H04N21/8456

  by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments · CPC title

• H04N21/6373

  for rate control {, e.g. request to the server to modify its transmission rate (flow control in packet networks H04L47/10)} · CPC title