Content Delivery Redirection With Adaptive Data-Rate Policies
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing content delivery systems face challenges in efficiently controlling data rates to devices, particularly when throttling is employed, leading to suboptimal performance and battery life issues due to network congestion and inefficient bandwidth usage.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method and apparatus that involve sending a redirection instruction to devices indicating a content delivery network and a data transfer policy, allowing the device to request content while adhering to specified data transfer policies, and enforcing these policies at the content delivery network level.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data rate is reduced to prevent network congestion, then network stability is improved, but content delivery performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the data transfer policy based on real-time network conditions. The policy parameter passed in the redirect response allows the CDN to adaptively control throughput, enabling the system to respond to changing network states rather than using fixed throttling rules.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the parameter being controlled from binary throttled/not-throttled to a continuous spectrum of throughput rates. By passing a policy parameter that indicates different throughput levels, the system can fine-tune data delivery to match network capacity while maintaining acceptable content delivery performance.
2Productivity
If adaptive bitrate streaming is used to adjust content quality, then content delivery efficiency is improved, but device battery consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The network node acts as an intermediary that offloads the complexity of adaptive bitrate management from the device. By implementing policy-based throughput control at the network level, the device simply receives content at the appropriate quality without needing to continuously analyze network conditions and adjust playback parameters, reducing computational energy consumption.
3Quantity of substance
If network throttling is implemented to manage bandwidth, then network congestion is reduced, but device performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by establishing the data transfer policy before content delivery begins. The policy parameter is communicated to the device through the redirect response, allowing the device to prepare appropriate buffering and playback strategies in advance, ensuring smooth content delivery even under throttled conditions.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus are provided for content delivery. In one aspect, method of receiving content in a device comprises sending a request for the content to a first network node, receiving a redirection instruction from the first network node, wherein the redirection instruction indicates a content delivery network and indicates a data transfer policy, sending a request for the content to the content delivery network, wherein the request indicates the data transfer policy, and receiving data associated with the content from the content delivery network according to the data transfer policy.