Method and System for Caching Streaming Multimedia on the Internet

Abstract

An apparatus and method to enhance existing caches in a network to better support streaming media storage and distribution. Helper machines are used inside the network to implement several methods which support streaming media including segmentation of streaming media objects into smaller units, cooperation of Helper machines, and novel placement and replacement policies for segments of media objects.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of commonly owned, pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 538,351, filed on Mar. 29, 2000, entitled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CACHING STREAMING MULTIMEDIA ON THE INTERNET, in the names of Katherine H. Guo, Markus A. Hofmann, Sanjoy Paul, Tze Sing Eugene Ng and Hui Zhang, which prior application is incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth herein.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to network systems, and particularly to public network systems, such as the Internet. More particularly, the invention relates to methods which improve the caching of streaming multimedia data (e.g., audio and video data) from a content provider over a network to a client's computer. [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art [0005] Computer networks such as the Internet are increasingly being used to transmit multimedia data (e.g., audio and video data...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013] The HSs reduce a content provider's memory and processing requirements by reducing the server load. Further, the invention reduces congestion problems by not being constrained by the unicast architecture of

Problems solved by technology

This model is relatively easy to implement, however, it is non-optimal in that the client is required to wait for the downloading to complete before the presentation can begin.

This delay can be considerable.

The Internet, however, is often unable to deliver streaming data.

This inability is most pronounced for video data.

The inability to deliver streaming data on demand is due in part to the fact that live and on-demand streaming multimedia (SM) objects are generally delivered over the Internet and other data networks via unicast connections.

That is, each additional client requesting streaming multimedia data imposes an additional burden upon the content provider to meet the increased demand.

From the Internet Service Provider's (ISP's) point of view, streaming multimedia under a unicast architecture poses network congestion problems.

From the client's point of view, there is often long delays between the time the video content is requested by a client and the time when the video content actually begins playing (i.e., high start-up latency).

In addition to the high start-up latency there also exists unpredictable playback quality due to netwo

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