Patent application number | Description | Published |
20130091297 | SWITCHING BETWEEN REPRESENTATIONS DURING NETWORK STREAMING OF CODED MULTIMEDIA DATA - Aspects of this disclosure generally relate to a method of retrieving video data of multimedia content. In an example, the method includes determining a first interval between switch points for a first representation of the multimedia content and a second interval between switch points for a second representation of the multimedia content, wherein the first interval is less than the second interval. The method also includes, based on the determination, submitting one or more network requests for an amount of video data from the first representation that has a playback time that is at least equal to a playback time between switch points in the second representation. The method also includes, after submitting the request for the amount of video data from the first representation, retrieving video data from the second representation. | 04-11-2013 |
20130227080 | DASH CLIENT AND RECEIVER WITH PLAYBACK RATE SELECTION - A client device presents streaming media and includes a stream manager, a request accelerator, and a source component coupled to the stream manager and the request accelerator for determining which requests to make. A rate selection process can make rate decisions so that the buffer is filled when it is low, avoiding erratically changing rates and can choose the correct steady rate quickly. Multimedia download strategies can be used for HTTP that allow for accurate rate estimations, achieving link capacity even if network delays and packet loss rates are high, achieving timely delivery of the stream, and achieving relatively steady download rates with little short term variability. A receiver might use multiple HTTP connections, decompose media requests into smaller chunk requests, synchronize the connections using TCP flow control mechanisms, and request data in bursts. In addition, the receiver might use an HTTP pipelining process to keep the connections busy. | 08-29-2013 |
20130227081 | DASH CLIENT AND RECEIVER WITH REQUEST CANCELLATION CAPABILITIES - A receiver receives media for playing out using a presentation element of the receiver can make requests and wait for responses, but can also cancel requests, possibly reissuing new requests, to improve a user experience taking into account network and other conditions. The receiver can select a playback rate and make requests at that playback rate, monitor a presentation buffer that stores media data to be consumed by a presentation element, store an indication of a buffer level corresponding to how much of the presentation buffer is occupied by the media data that is received and not yet consumed by the presentation element, maintain a state of an issued request for downloading a selected first chunk of media data, and when an issued request is outstanding, determine, based on network conditions and the state of the issued request, whether to continue the request or cancel the request. | 08-29-2013 |
20130227122 | DASH CLIENT AND RECEIVER WITH BUFFER WATER-LEVEL DECISION-MAKING - A client/receiver downloads data over a network path between a source and the receiver coupled by the network path and stores the media data in a presentation buffer of the receiver and from there it is consumed by a presentation element. The receiver monitors a presentation buffer fill level that represents what portion of the presentation buffer contains media data not yet consumed by a presentation element. The receiver makes requests for additional data to download. If the fill level is above a high fill threshold, the receiver does not make further requests and eventually the fill level goes down. If the fill level is below a low fill threshold, the receiver restarts the downloading and updates the fill level as media data is consumed by the presentation element. The fill level might be measured in units of memory storage capacity and/or units of presentation time. | 08-29-2013 |
20130246643 | SWITCH SIGNALING METHODS PROVIDING IMPROVED SWITCHING BETWEEN REPRESENTATIONS FOR ADAPTIVE HTTP STREAMING - The switch signaling methods providing improved switching between representations for adaptive HTTP streaming described herein enable user experience and bandwidth efficiency improvements for adaptive HTTP streaming solutions, even when segment data is encrypted. The signaling methods include associating segment maps with segments of a representation, wherein a segment map comprises both temporal entry and temporal exit points within associated segments together with byte offset information and potentially other segment information, wherein segment maps may be generated with predictable time span patterns that are independent of the time spans of the associated segments. These embodiments can be used to enhance existing deployments in such a way that there is no need to change existing content encoding and formatting processes, and such that existing clients that receive and play out content are unaffected. | 09-19-2013 |
20130254631 | CONTENT DELIVERY SYSTEM WITH ALLOCATION OF SOURCE DATA AND REPAIR DATA AMONG HTTP SERVERS - Data objects are delivered over a packet-switched network and receivers receive encoded symbols, such as repair symbols, broadcast or multicast, with sufficient information to form requests for additional symbols as needed based on what source symbols or sub-symbols are needed or missing. The requests can be made in a unicast or request fashion. Requesting and broadcasting might be done by different entities. A broadcast server can generate and store repair symbols while a source server can store content in source form. A request can be a unicast HTTP byte-range request, such as a URL, starting position and length. Requests might be aligned with starting positions of files. A receiver can calculate starting and ending byte positions of symbols or sub-symbols in a file and get indications that conventional HTTP servers are usable for file repair. Repair servers can request broadcast of repair data when byte-range requests from multiple receivers overlap. | 09-26-2013 |
20130254634 | UNIVERSAL OBJECT DELIVERY AND TEMPLATE-BASED FILE DELIVERY - Data objects can be delivered over a network using a file delivery system and universal object delivery and template-based file delivery. This might be done by forming source data into a sequence of data objects represented by symbols in packets, sending those to receivers on request, wherein a transmitter obtains a template file delivery table with delivery metadata for the data objects, and constructing a first transmission object identifier for a data object based on a transmission object identifier construction rule described in the template file delivery table. A receiver might receive packets, extract a second transmission object identifier, associate encoded symbols comprising the received data packet with the data object if the first transmission object identifier and the second transmission object identifier identify the same data object, and recover, at least approximately, the source data for the data object based on the encoded symbols associated with the data object. | 09-26-2013 |
20140136653 | DASH CLIENT AND RECEIVER WITH DOWNLOAD RATE ACCELERATION - A client device presents streaming media and includes a stream manager for controlling streams, a request accelerator for making network requests for content, a source component coupled to the stream manager and the request accelerator for determining which requests to make, a network connection, and a media player. The request accelerator can accelerate a download rate using a plurality of TCP connections. A target download rate can vary among HTTP requests. The TCP receiver window size for a given TCP connection might be based on the target download rate for that TCP connection and/or a current estimated round-trip time for the current TCP connection multiplied by a multiplier rate, wherein the multiplier rate is within a range bounded by the target download rate for the current TCP connection and a rate that is higher than the target download rate by a predetermined amount. | 05-15-2014 |
20140156863 | DASH CLIENT AND RECEIVER WITH A DOWNLOAD RATE ESTIMATOR - A client device presents streaming media and includes a stream manager for controlling streams, a request accelerator for making network requests for content, a source component coupled to the stream manager and the request accelerator for determining which requests to make, a network connection, and a media player. A process for rate estimation is provided that will react quickly to reception rate changes. The rate estimator can use an adaptive windowed average and take into account the video buffer level and the change in video buffer level in a way so to guarantee that the rate adjusts fast enough if there is a need, while keeping the windowing width large (and thus the measurement variance) large. A guarantee might be that when a rate drop or rise happens, the estimator adjusts its estimate within a time proportional to a buffer drain rate or buffer fill level. | 06-05-2014 |
20140201587 | FEC-BASED RELIABLE TRANSPORT CONTROL PROTOCOLS FOR MULTIPATH STREAMING - A client device includes one or more processors configured to receive, from a server device, forward-error corrected data via a plurality of parallel network paths, determine losses of the data over each of the network paths, and send data representing the losses of the data over each of the network paths to the server device. Additionally or alternatively, a client device includes one or more processors configured to receive a first set of encoding units for a first block, wherein the first set of encoding units includes fewer than a minimum number of encoding units needed to recover the first block, after receiving the first set of encoding units, receive a second set of encoding units for a second block, and after receiving the second set of encoding units, receive a third set of encoding units including one or more encoding units for the first block. | 07-17-2014 |
20140215292 | LT STAIRCASE FEC CODE - Systems and methods for encoding data for transmission over a communications channel using an improved LT staircase FEC code are provided. Embodiments may include mapping source symbols to repair symbols, wherein a number of edges of the mapping associated with a source symbol is determined randomly according to a first distribution. The repair symbols may be ordered, and at least a first repair symbol may be encoded based on the source symbols that map to the first repair symbol and/or another repair symbol that immediately precedes the first repair symbol in the ordering of the repair symbols. | 07-31-2014 |
20140307734 | Methods for Delivery of Flows of Objects over Broadcast/Multicast Enabled Networks - Content (e.g., multimedia streams, audio-video streams, video files, text, etc.) may be delivered to receiver devices over a broadcast channel and/or via a broadcast network via components (e.g., servers, receiver device, software applications, modules, processes, etc.) configured to communicate the content in a manner that reduces the amount of information communicated over the broadcast network, reduces the amount network bandwidth consumed by the communication, meets precise timing requirements for the individual objects that are communicated, and enables each receiver device to receive, decode, and render the content without consuming an excess amount of that receiver device's battery or processing resources. | 10-16-2014 |