Method for downloading content according to communication parameters, and associated content receiver

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9681175-B2
Application number	US-201314066681-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 29, 2013
Priority date	Oct 30, 2012
Publication date	Jun 13, 2017
Grant date	Jun 13, 2017

Abstract

A method for downloading multimedia contents is disclosed. The multimedia contents exists in at least two versions. Each of the versions corresponds to a different required transmission bit rate and each of the versions is temporally divided into chunks corresponding to a determined duration, one chunk being identified by an item of information representative of a temporal position i and by an item of information representative of a version j. A content receiver implementing this method is also described.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for downloading multimedia contents performed within a content receiver and comprising:
sending a request to receive at least one chunk identified by an item of information representative of a temporal position i and by an item of information representative of a version j,
determining said item of information representative of a temporal position i of a chunk to be downloaded before the end of a temporal interval ti′ such that a maximum download duration of said content is divided into temporal intervals, and an average number of chunks to download per each temporal interval is determined in order to have a total download duration of said content less than the maximum download duration of said content, the determining further comprising:
adding a guard interval, in chunks, to each of the temporal intervals, the guard interval being taken into account to determine a total number of chunks at any instant of the download for each of the temporal intervals, and corresponding to a margin taken over the total download duration, and

determining said item of information representative of a version j according to an available transmission bit rate so that the chunk identified by the item of information representative of the determined temporal position i and by the item of information representative of the version j are downloaded before the end of the temporal interval ti′, and
receiving said identified chunk.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said sending, determining and receiving are iterated for a plurality of items of information representative of a temporal position i of chunks to be downloaded before the end of the temporal interval ti′.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein for an initialization phase corresponding to a temporal interval ti′ less than a first threshold, the item of information representative of a determined version j corresponds to the minimum required transmission bit rate whatever the available transmission bit rates.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the item of information representative of a determined version j corresponds to the minimum required transmission bit rate when the plurality of chunks identified by said items of information representative of a temporal position i to be downloaded before the end of the temporal interval ti′ is not downloaded.

5. The method according to claim 2 , wherein, when the plurality of chunks identified by said items of information representative of a temporal position i to be downloaded before the temporal interval ti′ are downloaded, the method further comprises:
sending a request to receive a chunk identified by an item of information representative of a determined following temporal position i+1 and by an item of information representative of a determined version j,
determining for the chunk identified by the item of information representative of the following temporal position i+1, the item of information representative of a version j according to an available transmission bit rate so that the chunk identified by the item of information of temporal position i+1 and by the item of information representative of the determined version j are downloaded before the end of the temporal interval ti′+1,
receiving said identified chunk.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the sending, determining and receiving are iterated until the end of the temporal interval ti′.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the sending, determining and receiving are iterated for a plurality of temporal intervals ti′ so that the set of chunks of a content are downloaded.

8. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising estimating the available transmission bit rate for the temporal interval ti′+1 from at least one measured value of transmission bit rate for the temporal interval ti′.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the estimation of the available transmission bit rate for the temporal interval ti′+1 further comprises allocating a constant value to the available transmission bit rate equal to a measured value of transmission bit rate for the temporal interval ti′.

10. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the estimation of the available transmission bit rate further comprises allocating a value to the available transmission bit rate for the temporal interval ti′+1 as a linear function of two measured values of transmission bit rate for the preceding temporal intervals ti′ and ti′−1.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said determining an item of information representative of a temporal position i of a chunk to be downloaded before the end of the temporal interval ti′ further comprises varying a value of the guard interval during the download according to a level of advancement of the download.

12. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising downloading of at least one descriptive file comprising an item of information representative of versions of a content and describing the respective required transmission bit rates.

13. A receiver for downloading multimedia content, comprising:
a content obtaining device configured, for at least one temporal interval ti′ corresponding to the duration of the chunk identified by an item of information representative of the temporal position i′, to:
send a request to receive at least one chunk identified by an item of information representative of a temporal position i and by an item of information representative of a version j,
wherein said item of information representative of a temporal position i of a chunk to be downloaded before the end of the temporal interval ti′ is determined such that a maximum download duration of said content is divided into temporal intervals, and an average number of chunks to download per each temporal interval is determined in order to have a total download duration of said content less than the maximum download duration of said content, the determining further comprising:
adding a guard interval, in chunks, to each of the temporal intervals, the guard interval being taken into account to determine a total number of chunks at any instant of the download for each of the temporal intervals, and corresponding to a margin taken over the total download duration; and

wherein said item of information representative of a version j is determined according to an available transmission bit rate so that the chunk identified by the item of information representative of the determined temporal position i and by the item of information representative of the version j are downloaded before the end of the temporal interval ti′,
receive said identified chunk.

14. The receiver according to claim 13 , wherein said sending, determining and receiving performed by the content obtaining device are iterated for a plurality of items of information representative of a temporal position i of chunks to be downloaded before the end of the temporal interval ti′.

15. The receiver according to claim 13 , wherein for an initialization phase corresponding to a temporal interval ti′ less than a first threshold, the item of information representative of a determined version j corresponds to the minimum required transmission bit rate whatever the available transmission bit rates.

16. The receiver according to claim 13 , wherein the item of information representative of a determined version j corresponds to the minimum required transmission bit rate when the plurality of chunks identified by said items of information representative of a temporal position i to be downloaded before the end of the temporal interval t

Assignees

• Thomson Licensing

Inventors

• Gautier Eric
• Gouache Stephane
• Laurent Anthony

Classifications

• H04N21/231

  Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers, prioritizing data for deletion · CPC title

• H04N21/433 Primary

  Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request, caching operations · CPC title

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title

• H04L65/4084

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/608

  Electricity · mapped topic