Transmission of content fragments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9325756-B2
Application number	US-201113339769-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 29, 2011
Priority date	Dec 29, 2011
Publication date	Apr 26, 2016
Grant date	Apr 26, 2016

Abstract

Some aspects of the disclosure relate to transmitting content over a network. For example, a device may determine that it is missing a content fragment from its cache, and may send a request for the content fragment. A network device may be configured to respond to such requests by transmitting the content fragment. In some instances, this may allow receiving devices to acquire the missing content fragment without the need to transmit a request for content.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
transmitting, by a computing device via one or more first transmissions, content fragments of a content item, each of the content fragments configured to be stored based on an identifier of each content fragment;
receiving, from one of a plurality of receiving devices, a request to retransmit one content fragment of the content fragments;
receiving, from one or more other receiving devices of the plurality of receiving devices, one or more additional requests to retransmit the one content fragment;
determining, based on the request and the one or more additional requests, whether a threshold number of requests to retransmit has been received from the plurality of receiving devices;
responsive to determining that the threshold number of requests to retransmit has been received from the plurality of receiving devices, transmitting, via one or more second transmissions, the one content fragment as (a) one or more content data packets and (b) one or more attribute packets that each comprises the identifier of the one content fragment and information enabling validation and storage, for later retrieval using the identifier of the one content fragment, of the one content fragment after reassembly of the one content fragment from the one or more content data packets;
identifying which of the plurality of receiving devices sent the request and the one or more additional requests, resulting in information identifying sources of the request and the one or more additional requests;
determining, based on the information identifying the sources, a location different from each location of the plurality of receiving devices or a device different from each of the plurality of receiving devices; and
transmitting, to a network device, an identification of the location or the device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information identifying the sources comprises Internet Protocol addresses identifying the sources, and wherein determining the location or the device comprises determining that the location or the device is causing packet loss based on an analysis of the Internet Protocol addresses.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the location or the device comprises determining that the location or the device is causing packet loss based on an analysis of network topology information and the information identifying the sources.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request indicates that the one content fragment is missing from a cache of the one of the plurality of receiving devices and the request comprises the identifier of the one content fragment, and wherein transmitting the one content fragment causes the one of the plurality of receiving devices to insert the one content fragment into the cache.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content item comprises at least one of the following: a video file, video-on-demand content, a television program, pay-per-view content, interactive service content, electronic program guide data, object data, web data, software update content, or advertisement data.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving the one or more first transmissions;
reassembling the content fragments from data of the one or more first transmissions;
storing the content fragments in a cache;
determining that the one content fragment is missing from the cache;
transmitting the request;
receiving the one or more content data packets and the one or more attribute packets via the one or more second transmissions;
reassembling the one content fragment based on the one or more content data packets and the one or more attribute packets;
validating, after reassembling the one content fragment, the one content fragment;
storing the one content fragment in the cache; and
retrieving, at a time to transmit the one content fragment for consumption, the one content fragment based on the identifier of the one content fragment.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information identifying the sources comprises Internet protocol addresses.

8. A method, comprising:
transmitting, by a computing device via one or more first transmissions, content fragments of a content item, each of the content fragments configured to be stored based on an identifier of each content fragment;
receiving, from one of a plurality of receiving devices, a request to retransmit one content fragment of the content fragments;
receiving, from one or more other receiving devices of the plurality of receiving devices, one or more additional requests to retransmit the one content fragment;
determining, based on the request and the one or more additional requests, whether a threshold number of requests to retransmit has been received from the plurality of receiving devices;
responsive to determining that the threshold number of requests to retransmit has been received from the plurality of receiving devices, transmitting, via one or more second transmissions, the one content fragment as (a) one or more content data packets and (b) one or more attribute packets that each comprises the identifier of the one content fragment and information enabling validation and storage, for later retrieval using the identifier of the one content fragment, of the one content fragment after reassembly of the one content fragment from the one or more content data packets;
determining information indicating that the request and the one or more additional requests are from different sources;
determining, based on the information indicating that the request and the one or more additional requests are from different sources, a location different from each location of the plurality of receiving devices or a device different from each of the plurality of receiving devices; and
transmitting, to a network device, an identification of the location or the device.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the information indicating that the request and the one or more additional requests are from different sources comprises information indicating that the request and the one or more additional requests are from different Internet Protocol addresses, and wherein determining the location or the device comprises determining that the location or the device is causing packet loss based on an analysis of the information indicating that the request and the one or more additional requests are from different Internet Protocol addresses.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein determining the location or the device comprises determining that the location or the device is causing packet loss based on an analysis of network topology information and the information indicating that the request and the one or more additional requests are from different Internet Protocol addresses.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the request indicates that the one content fragment is missing from a cache of the one of the plurality of receiving devices and the request comprises the identifier of the one content fragment, and wherein transmitting the one content fragment causes the one of the plurality of receiving devices to insert the one content fragment into the cache.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the content item comprises at least one of the following: a video file, video-on-demand content, a television program, pay-per-view content, interactive service content, electronic program guide data, object data, web data, software update content, or advertisement data.

13. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving the one or more first transmissions;
reassembling the content fragments from data of the one or more first transmissions;
storing the content frag

Assignees

• Field Brian
• Van Doorn Jan
• Hall Jim
• Groustra Daniel
• Torluemke Mark
• Leddy John
• Comcast Cable Comm Llc

Inventors

• Field Brian
• Van Doorn Jan
• Hall Jim
• Groustra Daniel
• Torluemke Mark
• Leddy John

Classifications

• H04N21/8456

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

• H04N21/85406

  involving a specific file format, e.g. MP4 format · CPC title

• H04N21/632

  using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices (broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104) · CPC title

• H04N21/6375

  for requesting retransmission {, e.g. of data packets lost or corrupted during transmission from server}(ARQ protocols H04L1/18; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16) · CPC title

• H04L65/4084 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic