System and method for determining optimal bandwidth for streaming to a client device in an adjustable bit rate video system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9276967-B2
Application number	US-201213559835-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 27, 2012
Priority date	Jul 27, 2012
Publication date	Mar 1, 2016
Grant date	Mar 1, 2016

Abstract

A system and method for selecting an initial bandwidth setting. A determination is made that a client is initiating a communication session. Network conditions for the client are determined. A bandwidth setting for the client is selected utilizing the network conditions and a previous bandwidth setting saved in a memory. The communication session for the client is initiated utilizing the bandwidth seating.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method for selecting an initial bandwidth setting, the method comprising:
determining a client is initiating a communication session to receive streaming content from a content source, wherein the streaming content is stored as a plurality of content segments and a manifest describing the plurality of content segments and their order, each of the plurality of content segments being available in a plurality of bit rate encodings;
determining an identifier for the client;
determining network conditions for the client;
selecting a bandwidth setting for the client utilizing the network conditions and a previous bandwidth setting saved in a memory;

initiating the communication session for the client utilizing the bandwidth setting: wherein initiating the communication session for the client comprises streaming a first content segment having a first bit rate encoding based on the bandwidth setting;
and updating the bandwidth setting to change a bit rate of the streaming content, based on buffer utilization at one or more devices in a network connection between the client and the content source, wherein changing a bit rate of the streaming content comprises streaming a second content segment of the content, the second content segment having a different bit rate encoding than the first content segment;
storing at least one of the updated bandwidth setting, the buffer utilization, and a bandwidth history in memory.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the client is a video streaming application.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the network conditions include a type of data connection being utilized by the client.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the network conditions include determining a number of clients sharing a network connection with bandwidth limitations.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the communication session is initiation of a video session.

6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: updating the memory with a bandwidth setting in response to determining the client is functional at the bandwidth setting.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: determining an identifier associated with the client to determine the previous bandwidth setting associated with the client.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the identifier is a MAC address associated with the client.

9. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: storing the bandwidth setting at a predefined interval.

10. A server for selecting a bandwidth setting, comprising:
a processor for executing a set of instructions; and a memory for storing the set of instructions, wherein the set of instructions are configured to:
determine a client is initiating a communication session to receive streaming content from a content source, wherein the streaming content is stored as a plurality of content segments and a manifest describing the plurality of content segments and their order, each of the plurality of content segments being available in a plurality of bit rate encodings;
determine an identifier associated with the client;
determine network conditions for the client;
select a bandwidth setting for the client utilizing the network conditions and the identifier associated with the client, wherein the identifier is associated with a previous bandwidth setting saved in a memory;
initiate the communication session for the client utilizing the bandwidth setting wherein initiating the communication session for the client comprises streaming a first content segment having a first bit rate encoding based on the bandwidth setting; and
update the bandwidth setting to change a bit rate of the streaming content, based on buffer utilization at one or more devices in a network connection between the client and the content source, wherein changing a bit rate of the streaming content comprises streaming a second content segment of the content, the second content segment having a different bit rate encoding than the first content segment;
store at least one of the updated bandwidth setting, the buffer utilization, and a bandwidth history in memory.

11. The server according to claim 10 , wherein the client is a video streaming application, and wherein the network conditions include a type of data connection being utilized by the client.

12. The server according to claim 10 , wherein the network conditions include determining a number of clients sharing a network connection with bandwidth limitations.

13. The server according to claim 10 , wherein the memory is a database accessed by the server to determine the previous bandwidth setting.

14. The server according to claim 10 , wherein the bandwidth setting is selected for each new communication session, and wherein the communication session includes at least video streaming.

15. The server according to claim 10 , wherein the server is the content source.

16. A system for retrieving a bandwidth setting, the system comprising:
a server configured to determine a client is initiating a communication session to receive streaming content from a content source, determine an identifier associated with the client, determine network conditions for the client, select a bandwidth setting for the client utilizing the identifier associated with the client, the network conditions for the client, and a previous bandwidth setting utilized by the client, initiate the communication session for the client utilizing the bandwidth setting, and update the bandwidth setting to change a bit rate of the streaming content based on buffer utilization at one or more devices in a network connection between the client and the content source; and
a database in communication with the server, the database is operable to store the updated bandwidth setting utilized by the client;
wherein the streaming content is stored as a plurality of content segments and a manifest describing the plurality of content segments and their order, each of the plurality of content segments being available in a plurality of bit rate encodings;
wherein initiating the communication session for the client comprises streaming a first content segment having a first bit rate encoding based on the bandwidth setting;
and wherein changing a bit rate of the streaming content comprises streaming a second content segment of the content, the second content segment having a different bit rate encoding than the first content segment.

17. The system according to claim 16 , wherein a plurality of bandwidth settings are stored in the database, and wherein the plurality of bandwidth settings are associated with each of a plurality of clients utilizing each of a plurality of identifiers for initiating communications sessions.

18. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the identifier is a MAC address.

19. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the network conditions include at least a number of clients sharing a network connection with bandwidth limitations and a type of connection utilized by the client.

20. The server according to claim 16 , wherein the server is the content source.

Assignees

• Casey Steven M
• Castro Felipe
• Dhaliwal Ronnie
• Choi Hong
• Centurylink Ip Llc

Inventors

• Casey Steven M
• Castro Felipe
• Dhaliwal Ronnie
• Choi Hong

Classifications

• H04L41/0896

  Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities (flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76) · CPC title

• H04L47/70

  Admission control; Resource allocation · CPC title

• H04N21/2662 Primary

  Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities · CPC title

• H04L12/5695

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/60

  Network streaming of media packets · CPC title