Extending caching network functionality to an existing streaming media server

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9596278-B2
Application number	US-201113224507-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 2, 2011
Priority date	Sep 3, 2010
Publication date	Mar 14, 2017
Grant date	Mar 14, 2017

Abstract

A content delivery network (CDN) includes multiple cluster sites, including sites with streaming media servers, caching servers and storage devices accessible to the caching servers for storing streaming content. Interface software is configured to initiate retrieval, by a caching server, of electronic streaming resources from the one or more storage devices in response to requests for the electronic streaming resource received by the streaming media server.

First claim

We claim:

1. A system for content delivery comprising:
a streaming media server not configured to interact with a streaming database;
a caching server;
one or more storage devices accessible to the caching server, wherein the one or more storage devices store content;
interface software configured to initiate retrieval, by the caching server, of at least one electronic streaming resource from the one or more storage devices in response to an end user's request for the at least one electronic streaming resource received by the streaming media server;
wherein the interface software is configured to:
(a) obtain an instruction from the streaming media server regarding the at least one electronic streaming resource, the instruction including at least some information regarding the at least one electronic streaming resource;
(b) convert the instruction into information associated with a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request regarding the at least one electronic streaming resource; and
(c) use the information associated with the HTTP request to initiate retrieval, by the caching server, of the at least one electronic streaming resource; and

wherein a type of the at least one electronic streaming resource is one of: mp3, mp4, flv, f4v, mov, and avi;
wherein the at least some information regarding the at least one electronic streaming resource included with the instruction from the streaming media server includes a first Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the at least one electronic streaming resource, and wherein the interface software converts the first URL into a second URL; and
wherein the first URL is in a streaming format and wherein the second URL is an HTTP URL.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the interface software is integrated into the streaming media server.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the interface software is a plugin on the streaming media server.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the first URL is a Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) URL.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the first URL has the form:
protocol://host/application/[instance]/[path_to_stream]/[codec:]streamnam-e[.ext]
or

protocol://host/application/[instance]/[codec:][path_to_stream]/-streamname[.ext]
with an optional extension ext after “streamname”, and wherein the second URL has the form:
http://host/path_to_stream/stream name.ext.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the instruction is selected from the instructions: connect and play.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more storage devices also store configuration data related to at least some of the content, and wherein the interface software is further configured to initiate retrieval, by the caching server, of at least some configuration data related to the at least one electronic streaming resource.

8. An interface device, in a system for content delivery comprising:
a streaming media server not configured to interact with a streaming database;
a caching server; and
one or more storage devices accessible to the caching server, wherein the one or more storage devices each store streaming content, the interface device comprising:
interface software configured to initiate retrieval, by the caching server, of at least one electronic streaming resource from the one or more storage devices in response to an end user's request for the at least one electronic streaming resource received by the streaming media server;
wherein the device is configured to:
obtain an instruction from the streaming media server not configured to interact with the streaming database regarding the at least one electronic streaming resource, the instruction including at least some information regarding the at least one electronic streaming resource;
convert the instruction into information associated with a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request regarding the at least one electronic streaming resource; and
use the information associated with the HTTP request to initiate retrieval, by the caching server, of the at least one electronic streaming resource;

wherein the at least some information regarding the at least one electronic streaming resource included with the instruction from the streaming media server includes a first Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the at least one electronic streaming resource, and wherein the interface device converts the first URL into a second URL;
wherein the first URL is in a streaming URL format and wherein the second URL is an HTTP URL.

9. The interface device of claim 8 wherein the interface software is configured to initiate retrieval by the caching server of configuration data.

10. The interface device of claim 8 wherein the device is integrated into the streaming media server.

11. The interface device of claim 10 wherein the device is a plugin on the streaming media server.

12. The interface device of claim 8 wherein the first URL is a Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) URL.

13. The interface device of claim 8 wherein the first URL has the form:
protocol://host/application/[instance]/[path_to_stream]/[codec:]streamnam-e[.ext]
or

protocol://host/application/[instance]/[codec:][path_to_stream]-/streamname[.ext]
where ‘protocol’ can be ‘rtmp’, ‘rtmpe’, ‘rtmpt’, ‘rtmpte’, and
with an optional extension “.ext” after “streamname”, and wherein the second URL has the form:
http://host/path_to_stream/streamname.ext.

14. The interface device of claim 8 wherein a type of the at least one electronic streaming resource is one of: mp3, mp4, flv, f4v, mov, and avi.

15. The interface device of claim 8 wherein the instruction is selected from the instructions: connect and play.

16. A streaming server, in a system for content delivery comprising:
a caching server; and
one or more storage devices accessible to the caching server, wherein the storage device stores content deliverable by the streaming server,
the streaming server comprising:
an interface device comprising software configured to initiate retrieval, by the caching server, of at least one electronic streaming resource from the one or more storage devices in response to an end user's request for the at least one electronic streaming resource received by the streaming server;
wherein the interface device is configured to:
obtain an instruction from the streaming server regarding the at least one electronic streaming resource, the instruction including at least some information regarding the at least one electronic streaming resource;
convert the instruction into information associated with a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request regarding the at least one electronic streaming resource; and
use the information associated with the HTTP request to initiate retrieval, by the caching server, of the at least one electronic streaming resource;

wherein a type of the at least one electronic streaming resource is one of: mp3, mp4, flv, f4v, mov, and avi; and
wherein the streaming server is not configured to interact with a streaming database;
wherein the at least some information regarding the at least one electronic streaming resource included with the instruction from the streaming server includes a first Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the at least one electronic streaming resource, and wherein the interface device converts the first URL into a second URL; and
wherein the first URL is in a streaming format and wherein the second URL is an HTTP URL.

17. A computer cluster comprising:
(A) a switch;
(B) a first plurality of caching servers connected to the switch;
(C) one or more storage devices ac

Assignees

• Yevmenkin Maksim
• Newton Christopher
• Fullagar David
• Level 3 Communications Llc

Inventors

• Yevmenkin Maksim
• Newton Christopher
• Fullagar David

Classifications

• H04L67/2842

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/4084 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L29/08729

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/568 Primary

  Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching · CPC title

• H04L65/612

  for unicast · CPC title