Cost and resource utilization optimization in multiple data source transcoding

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9369510-B2
Application number	US-50407409-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 16, 2009
Priority date	Jul 16, 2009
Publication date	Jun 14, 2016
Grant date	Jun 14, 2016

Abstract

A plurality of input data streams, from a plurality of data sources, are identified. The input data streams are in a plurality of different formats. For each of the input data streams, one of a plurality of transcoders is selected, to obtain a transcoding plan. Each of the plurality of transcoders has an associated transcoding cost. A potential output for each of the plurality of transcoders has an associated storage cost, and the selecting step includes jointly reducing the overall cost, subject to appropriate constraints. The method can be employed, for example, for designing a new system or efficiently utilizing an existing system. The plurality of streams can be transcoded in accordance with the plan.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising the steps of:
identifying a plurality of input data streams from a plurality of data sources, said input data streams being in a plurality of different formats; and
selecting, for each of said input data streams, one of a plurality of transcoders, to obtain a transcoding plan, each of said plurality of transcoders having an associated transcoding cost, a potential output for each of said plurality of transcoders having an associated storage cost, said selecting comprising jointly reducing an overall cost, subject to constraints, wherein said overall cost comprises said associated transcoding cost and said associated storage cost.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transcoding said plurality of input data streams in accordance with said transcoding plan to obtain a plurality of actual outputs, said plurality of actual outputs comprising transcoded versions of said plurality of input data streams.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
said overall cost comprises operational cost;
said selecting is carried out to improve efficiency of utilization of an existing deployed system comprising said plurality of transcoders and at least one storage resource; and
said constraints comprise storage fidelity and time length constraints.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
said overall cost comprises deployment cost;
said selecting is carried out to determine a required number of said transcoders and a required size of at least one storage resource in a system to be deployed; and
said constraints comprise storage fidelity and time length constraints.

5. The method of claim 1 , where said constraints do not include a storage requirement, such that said associated storage costs may be taken as zero, and such that said selecting comprises jointly reducing said transcoding costs.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said constraints do not include a transcoding, cost requirement, such that said associated transcoding costs may be taken as zero, and wherein said selecting step comprises jointly reducing said storage costs.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said selecting step comprises finding a set of parameter vectors (T J , R j ) for each S j , j=1, 2, . . . , N, such that:

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8. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, said computer readable program code comprising:
computer readable program code configured to identify a plurality of input data streams from a plurality of data sources, said input data streams being in a plurality of different formats; and computer readable program code configured to select, for each of said input data streams, one of a plurality of transcoders, to obtain a transcoding plan, each of said plurality of transcoders having an associated transcoding cost, a potential output for each of said plurality of transcoders having an associated storage cost, said selecting comprising jointly reducing an overall cost, subject to constraints, wherein said overall cost comprises said associated transcoding cost and said associated storage cost.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , further comprising computer readable program code configured to transcode said plurality of input data streams in accordance with said transcoding plan to obtain a plurality of actual outputs, said plurality of actual outputs comprising transcoded versions of said plurality of input data streams.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein:
said overall cost comprises operational cost;
said computer readable program code for selecting comprises computer readable program code to improve efficiency of utilization of an existing d

Assignees

• Lu Ligang
• Sheinin Vadim
• IBM

Inventors

• Lu Ligang
• Sheinin Vadim

Classifications

• H04L65/60

  Network streaming of media packets · CPC title

• H04L65/605 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/765 Primary

  intermediate · CPC title