Method for operating a network equipment arranged along a transmission path between a client terminal and at least one server, and corresponding network equipment

Abstract

Network equipment (GW) configured to be arranged along a transmission path between a client terminal and at least one server, said network equipment being configured to receive a request from the client terminal for a first representation of a segment of a multimedia content available at several representations, said request further specifying one or several alternative representations of said segment, which comprises: a bandwidth estimator (14) configured to determine at least one downstream bandwidth along a transmission path between a server and the client terminal, a filtering module (16) configured to modify said request by removing each alternative representation of the request whose associated bitrate is higher than the determined downstream bandwidth, and a communication module (11) configured to forward the modified request to an upstream network element arranged between the network equipment (GW) and the server.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates generally to the field of adaptive streaming via (for example but not exclusively) HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), and in particular to the deployment of network devices ( such as the operation of gateways or caches). Background technique [0002] This section is intended to introduce the reader to various approaches in the art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention that are described and / or claimed below. It is believed that this discussion helps to provide the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art. [0003] Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (also known as Multiple Bitrate Switching or HAS) is rapidly becoming the dominant technology for multimedia content distribution. Among the HTTP adaptiv...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0013] When the bandwidth is insufficient, the client terminal may receive the segment too late

As a result, the cache at the client terminal can be reduced, and large receive delays can cause cache underflow

[0014] Furthermore, when neither of the requested first and alternative representations are cached, the request is forwarded upstream without any bandwidth considerations, so that the use of network resources may not be optimal, especially when the When there is a bottleneck between your cache and another network device (such as a cache, server, etc.)

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