Carriage of quality information of content in media formats

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9521469-B2
Application number	US-201414256650-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 18, 2014
Priority date	Apr 19, 2013
Publication date	Dec 13, 2016
Grant date	Dec 13, 2016

Abstract

A method for managing quality information for dynamic adaption in content delivery, wherein the method comprises selecting a granularity level for an encoded media data, computing a plurality of quality metrics for the encoded media data at the selected granularity level, wherein the quality metrics are measures of coding quality of the encoded media data, generating a quality track comprising the plurality of quality metrics, and storing the quality track on a media content server separate from other tracks that are associated with the encoded media data. Also disclosed is a network device comprising a processor configured to select a granularity level for an encoded media data, and compute a plurality of quality metrics that indicate coding quality of the encoded media data at the selected granularity level, and a transmitter coupled to the processor and configured to send the quality track towards a user of the media data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for managing quality information for dynamic adaption in a content delivery network element, comprising:
selecting, via a hardware processor of the content delivery network element, one or more granularity levels for a media track comprising encoded media data;
computing, via the hardware processor, a plurality of quality metrics for the encoded media data at the selected granularity levels, wherein the quality metrics are measures of coding quality of the encoded media data;
generating, via the hardware processor, a quality track corresponding to the media track at the selected granularity levels, the quality track comprising the plurality of quality metrics;
storing the quality track on a storage device of the network element separate from the media track; and
transmitting, via a transmitter of the content delivery network element, the quality track to a client device to inform selection of the encoded media data,
wherein the quality track comprises a granularity field that indicates a granularity level of the quality metrics, and
wherein the granularity field is able to be set to a first value to indicate a sample granularity level, set to a second value to indicate a track run granularity level, set to a third value to indicate a track fragment granularity level, set to a fourth value to indicate a movie fragment granularity level, and set to a fifth value to indicate a sub-segment granularity level.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each granularity level corresponds to a different portion of the encoded media data, and wherein the quality track comprises an association between the quality metrics and the encoded media data at the selected granularity levels.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the encoded media data comprises a timed sequence of samples, wherein the samples are grouped into one or more track runs, wherein the track runs are grouped into one or more track fragments, wherein the track fragments are grouped into one or more movie fragments, and wherein the movie fragments are grouped into one or more sub-segments.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the selected granularity levels comprise a sample time interval, and wherein computing the plurality of quality metrics comprises measuring coding quality for each encoded media data sample.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the selected granularity levels comprise a track run time interval, wherein computing the plurality of quality metrics comprises measuring coding quality for each encoded media data track run.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the selected granularity levels comprise a track fragment time interval, wherein computing the plurality of quality metrics comprises measuring coding quality for each encoded media data track fragment.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein the selected granularity levels comprise a movie fragment time interval, wherein computing the plurality of quality metrics comprises measuring coding quality for each encoded media data movie fragment.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein the selected granularity levels comprise a sub-segment time interval, wherein computing the plurality of quality metrics comprises measuring coding quality for each encoded media data sub-segment.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the coding quality comprises a peak signal-to-noise-ratio (PSNR), a mean opinion score (MOS), or combinations thereof.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the quality track indicates dynamic adaptation factors for transmitting segments of the media track to the client device via a network.

11. A network device, configured to act as a media server, and comprising:
a hardware processor configured to:
select one or more granularity levels for an encoded media data in a media data track;
compute a plurality of quality metrics that indicate coding quality of the encoded media data by measuring the encoded media data at the selected granularity-level; and
generate a quality track corresponding to the media track at the selected granularity levels, the quality track comprising the plurality of quality metrics;

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to store the quality track separately from other tracks associated with the encoded media data, wherein the quality track comprises a one-to-one mapping association with the encoded media data at the selected granularity levels; and
a transmitter coupled to the processor and the memory and configured to send the quality track towards a client device to inform selection of the encoded media data,
wherein the quality track comprises a granularity field that indicates a granularity level of the quality metrics, and
wherein the granularity field is able to be set to a first value to indicate a sample granularity level, set to a second value to indicate a track run granularity level, set to a third value to indicate a track fragment granularity level, set to a fourth value to indicate a movie fragment granularity level, and set to a fifth value to indicate a sub-segment granularity level.

12. The network device of claim 11 , wherein the encoded media data comprises a timed sequence of samples, wherein the granularity levels are time interval granularities, and wherein a minimum granularity is one sample.

13. The network device of claim 11 , wherein the encoded media data comprises one or more encoded versions of a source media data, and wherein the quality track comprises the quality metrics for one or more of the encoded versions.

14. The network device of claim 11 , wherein the encoded media data comprises one or more encoded versions of a source media data, and wherein the network device further comprises a receiver configured to:
receive a first message comprising a request for accessing the quality track; and
receive a second message comprising a selection of one of the encoded versions based on the quality metrics in the quality track.

15. A method for communicating quality information of a media data in a file format implemented in a media server, the method comprising:
deriving, via a hardware processor of the media server, the quality information of the media data on different granularity levels for different portions of the media data, wherein the media data comprises digitally encoded media content;
decoupling the quality information from the media data by storing the quality information in a quality metadata track;
associating the quality metadata track to a media track that carries the media data such that a mapping exists between the quality metadata track and the media track at each of the granularity levels; and
transmitting, via a transmitter coupled to the hardware processor, the quality metadata track to a client device to inform selection of the media data in the media track,
wherein the quality metadata track comprises a granularity field that indicates a granularity level of the quality information carried in a portion of the quality metadata track, and
wherein the granularity field is able to be set to a first value to indicate a sample granularity level, set to a second value to indicate a track run granularity level, set to a third value to indicate a track fragment granular level, set to a fourth value to indicate movie fragment granularity level, and set to a fifth value to indicate a sub-segment granularity level.

16. The method of claim 15 , the quality metadata track comprises a quality metadata track description formatted data comprising:
a quality metric that indicates a metric used for quality measurement; and
a first scale factor of the quality metric.

Assignees

• Futurewei Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Zhang Shaobo
• Wang Xin

Classifications

• H04N21/85406

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

• H04N21/442

  Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed, the storage space available from the internal hard disk {(arrangements for monitoring broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/29; arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information H04H60/35; monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; monitoring in wireless networks H04W24/00)} · CPC title

• H04N21/6587

  Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection · CPC title

• H04N21/8456

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

• H04N21/23439

  for generating different versions · CPC title