Scheduling transmissions of adaptive bitrate streaming flows

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018109468-A1
Application number	US-201615292486-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 13, 2016
Priority date	Oct 13, 2016
Publication date	Apr 19, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present disclosure generally discloses a scheduling control capability for controlling scheduling of transmissions where adaptive bitrate streaming is used for delivery of content (e.g., video content or other types of content which may be streamed using adaptive bitrate streaming) from source devices to end devices. The scheduling control capability may be configured to control scheduling of transmissions of adaptive bitrate streaming flows based on priority levels assigned to the adaptive bitrate streaming flows. The scheduling control capability may be configured to dynamically control the priority levels assigned to the adaptive bitrate streaming flows. The scheduling control capability may be configured to dynamically control the priority levels assigned to the adaptive bitrate streaming flows, for use in controlling the scheduling of transmissions of the adaptive bitrate streaming flows, in manner for improving user quality-of-experience, in a manner for improving spectral efficiency, or the like, as well as various combinations thereof.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus, comprising:
a processor and a memory communicatively connected to the processor, the processor configured to:
determine a target flow rate of an adaptive bitrate streaming flow;
determine a measured flow rate of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow; and
determine whether to modify a priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on a determination as to whether the measured flow rate of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow satisfies the target flow rate of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine the target flow rate of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on an allocation of a maximum allocated flow rate available at a wireless access device among a set of adaptive bitrate streaming flows served by the wireless access device.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine the target flow rate of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on at least one of a cell congestion status associated with a wireless access device or radio channel conditions associated with a wireless access device.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine the measured flow rate of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on a chunk size of a chunk of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow and a chunk interval of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:
based on a determination that the measured flow rate for the adaptive bitrate streaming flow satisfies the target flow rate for the adaptive bitrate streaming flow, keep the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow unchanged.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:
based on a determination that the measured flow rate for the adaptive bitrate streaming flow does not satisfy the target flow rate for the adaptive bitrate streaming flow, modify the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:
based on a determination that the measured flow rate for the adaptive bitrate streaming flow does not satisfy the target flow rate for the adaptive bitrate streaming flow, determine whether the adaptive bitrate streaming flow is associated with a variable channel condition.

8 . The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to:
based on a determination that the adaptive bitrate streaming flow is associated with a variable channel condition, determine whether to increase or decrease the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on a signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) associated with the adaptive bitrate streaming flow.

9 . The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:
increase the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on a determination that the SINR associated with the adaptive bitrate streaming flow satisfies an SINR threshold.

10 . The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:
decrease the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on a determination that the SINR associated with the adaptive bitrate streaming flow does not satisfy an SINR threshold.

11 . The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to:
based on a determination that the adaptive bitrate streaming flow is not associated with a variable channel condition, determine how to increase the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on a determination as to whether the adaptive bitrate streaming flow is associated with good channel conditions or bad channel conditions.

12 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processor is configured to:
increase the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on a determination that the adaptive bitrate streaming flow is associated with good channel conditions.

13 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processor is configured to:
temporarily increase the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on a determination that the adaptive bitrate streaming flow is associated with bad channel conditions.

14 . A method, comprising:
determine, by a processor, a target flow rate of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow; determine, by the processor, a measured flow rate of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow; and determine, by the processor, whether to modify the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on a determination as to whether the measured flow rate of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow satisfies the target flow rate of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow.

15 . An apparatus, comprising:
a processor and a memory communicatively connected to the processor, the processor configured to:
determine, for a wireless end device associated with an adaptive bitrate streaming flow responsive to a determination that a measured flow rate of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow does not satisfy a target flow rate of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow, whether the wireless end device is in a steady channel condition or a variable channel condition; and
modify a priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on the determination as to whether the wireless end device is in a steady channel condition or a variable channel condition.

16 . The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the processor is configured to determine whether the wireless end device is in a steady channel condition or a variable channel condition based on a variability of signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) measurements associated with the wireless end device.

17 . The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the processor is configured to:
based on a determination that the wireless end device is in a variable channel condition, determine a measured signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) associated with the wireless end device; and modify the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on a determination as to whether the measured SINR associated with the wireless end device of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow satisfies a threshold SINR.

18 . The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the processor is configured to:
decrease the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on a determination the measured SINR associated with the wireless end device of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow does not satisfy the threshold SINR.

19 . The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the processor is configured to:
increase the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on a determination the measured SINR associated with the wireless end device of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow satisfies the threshold SINR.

20 . The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the processor is configured to:
based on a determination that the wireless end device is in a steady channel condition, determine whether the wireless end device of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow is in a good channel condition or a bad channel condition; and modify the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on the determination as to whether the wireless end device of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow is in a good channel condition or a bad channel condition.

21 . The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the processor is configured to:
increase the priority of the adaptive bitrate streaming flow based on a determination that the wireless end device

Assignees

• Sridhar Kamakshi
• Segel Jonathan
• Payette Charles R
• Sayeed Zulfiquar
• Grinshpun Edward
• Alcatel Lucent Usa Inc
• Alcatel Lucent Canada Inc

Inventors

• Sridhar Kamakshi
• Segel Jonathan
• Payette Charles R
• Sayeed Zulfiquar
• Grinshpun Edward

Classifications

• H04L5/006

  Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling · CPC title

• H04L47/806 Primary

  Broadcast or multicast traffic · CPC title

• H04L47/826

  Involving periods of time · CPC title

• H04L65/602

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L1/0002 Primary

  by adapting the transmission rate · CPC title