Dynamic bandwidth thresholds

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9521178-B1
Application number	US-64371909-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 21, 2009
Priority date	Dec 21, 2009
Publication date	Dec 13, 2016
Grant date	Dec 13, 2016

Abstract

Dynamic bandwidth thresholds enable substantially uninterrupted transmission of a highest compatible bit rate of a stream of media from a host to a client via a network connection. The client may include one or more buffers for receiving the stream of media. Attributes including the geolocation information of the client, buffer activity, and a bandwidth of the network connection may be monitored to determine an alternative bit rate of the stream of media. Future streams of media may be served at the alternative bit rate to provide clients sharing one or more of the monitored attributes with the highest compatible bit rate based on the monitored attributes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of adjusting bandwidth thresholds for streaming media between a host and a client, comprising:
serving, from the host to the client, a list of bandwidth thresholds and associated bit rate values to enable bit rate selection for streaming media between the host and the client, the list being associated with a geographic region, wherein the bandwidth thresholds in the list are determined based at least in part on data aggregated from multiple clients having a common internet protocol (IP) geolocation within the geographic region, wherein the list of bandwidth thresholds and associated bit rate values is updated based at least in part on the geographic region associated with the common IP geolocation;
measuring a bandwidth between the host and the client while streaming media from the host to the client at one of the bit rate values;
recording a bit rate for a first stream of media when the stream of media fails to play at the client due to bandwidth latency;
ascertaining an IP geolocation of the client, the IP geolocation including at least one of an internet service provider (ISP) of the client or an IP address of the client, wherein the IP geolocation correlates to the geographic region of the list;
determining an adjusted bit rate value for a second stream of media according to a function of the bandwidth between the host and the client and the IP geolocation of the client;
storing, associated with the IP geolocation of the client, the adjusted bit rate value as one of the bit rate values; and
sending the second stream of media to the client at an adjusted bit rate based at least on the IP geolocation of the client.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the ascertaining of the IP geolocation information of the client further comprises discovering at least one of:
a city where the client is located; or
a zip code where the client is located.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
obtaining auxiliary information of the client, wherein the auxiliary information comprises at least one of a client operating system, a client processor model, a client memory type, a client memory configuration, or a time of day when the client makes a request for the stream of media; and
sending the stream of media at the adjusted bit rate based at least on the auxiliary information of the client.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
periodically analyzing the aggregated information of multiple clients, the aggregated information including at least one of the IP geolocation information of the multiple clients or auxiliary information of the multiple clients; and
determining an ideal bit rate value from among the bit rate values to predict an initial bit rate of a subsequent stream of media based at least in part on the aggregated information.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
aggregating the information collected from the multiple clients, the aggregated information including the IP geolocation information and bit rate information;
serving an updated list of the plurality of bandwidth thresholds and the associated bit rate values for streaming media from the host to the client based at least on the aggregating; and
sending the stream of media to one or more of the multiple clients at the adjusted bit rate based at least on the updated list.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 , wherein the determining the adjusted bit rate value is based at least on the aggregating the IP geolocation information and the bit rate information of one or more of the multiple clients.

7. A method implemented by a host comprising:
discovering a client connected to the host over a network connection;
performing a bandwidth test on the network connection;
determining a bit rate from a list of bandwidth thresholds and associated bit rate values to enable streaming media between the host and the client over the network connection based at least on the bandwidth test, the list being associated with a geographic region, wherein the bandwidth thresholds in the list are determined based at least in part on data aggregated from multiple clients having a common internet protocol (IP) geolocation within the geographic region, wherein the list of bandwidth thresholds and associated bit rate values is updated based at least in part on the geographic region associated with the common IP geolocation;
serving a media stream from the host to the client at a first rate according to the bit rate determined from the list of bandwidth thresholds and associated bit rate values;
measuring a bandwidth between the host and the client while streaming the media from the host to the client at the first rate; and
revising the rate of the media stream to a second rate based at least on the bandwidth measured between the host and the client and an IP geolocation of the client in accordance with the list of bandwidth thresholds and associated bit rate values, the IP geolocation including at least one of an internet service provider (ISP) of the client or an IP address of the client, wherein the IP geolocation correlates to the geographic region of the list.

8. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising receiving a selection of a bit rate of the media stream from the client.

9. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising serving the media stream from the host to the client at the second rate.

10. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising:
determining a new bit rate value based on at least one of a bit rate of the media stream or the bandwidth measured, the new bit rate being stored in a group of predetermined bit rate values; and
using the new bit rate to predict an initial bit rate of a subsequent stream of media content.

11. The method as recited in claim 7 , wherein the measuring of the bandwidth between the host and the client is performed by the host.

12. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising receiving a notification of a playback event from the client, the notification regarding at least one of the following playback events:
the media stream starting;
rebuffering, or
stream switching.

13. The method as recited in claim 7 , wherein the measuring of the bandwidth between the host and the client is performed by the client, and further comprising receiving the measurement of the bandwidth from the client.

14. The method as recited in claim 13 , further comprising receiving a client request for adjustment of the media stream, wherein the media stream served is based at least on the measurement of the bandwidth.

15. The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein the host adjusts the media stream served based at least on the measurement of the bandwidth.

16. The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein the host adjusts the media stream served based at least on a threshold associated with the measurement of the bandwidth.

17. The method as recited in claim 16 , wherein:
the threshold associated with the measurement of the bandwidth is set by the host based at least on aggregated information; and
the threshold associated with the measurement of the bandwidth is sent from the host to the client.

18. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising:
periodically analyzing the aggregated data of the multiple clients, the aggregated data including at least one of the IP geolocation information of the multiple clients or auxiliary information of the multiple clients; and
determining an ideal bit rate value from among the bit rate values to predict an

Assignees

• Gigliotti Samuel S
• Freeman Ii James Marvin
• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Gigliotti Samuel S
• Freeman Ii James Marvin

Classifications

• H04L65/60

  Network streaming of media packets · CPC title

• H04L65/601

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/602 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/762

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

• H04L65/80 Primary

  Responding to QoS · CPC title