D2D Media Segment Recovery for Multicast Playback Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
In multicast or broadcast media streaming, issues such as error correction overhead, corrupted or dropped segments, and quality fluctuations lead to poor user experience, while FEC and unicast recovery mechanisms are inefficient or unavailable.
Innovation Solution
A device receiving a primary multicast establishes a secondary multicast via a different network, using sidelink or D2D connections to retrieve missing or corrupted segments from nearby user devices, with a Media Handler Unit (MHU) facilitating segment detection and retrieval.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If Forward Error Correction (FEC) is used for error correction in multicast/broadcast, then reliability of media stream reception is improved, but network overhead and resource consumption increase severely
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces user devices as intermediary nodes that store and share media segments through D2D communication. When a device receives corrupted or missing segments, it can retrieve them from nearby devices that successfully received them, eliminating the need for transmitter-based FEC retransmissions and reducing network overhead significantly
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables user devices to self-service by autonomously detecting missing segments, querying nearby devices for available segments, and retrieving them through D2D communication. This self-healing mechanism eliminates dependency on transmitter-based error correction and allows devices to maintain playback continuity independently
2Reliability
If unicast channel is used as fallback from transmitter for retrieving missing segments, then completeness of media stream is improved, but connection establishment capability is limited due to point-to-multipoint architecture
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional fallback approach by having devices retrieve missing segments from other receiving devices rather than from the original transmitter. This peer-to-peer retrieval mechanism bypasses the point-to-multipoint connection limitation and enables flexible segment recovery without requiring transmitter-initiated unicast connections
3Reliability
If transmitter increases output power to accommodate farthest receiver devices, then coverage area and reliability are improved, but bandwidth and energy consumption increase unnecessarily
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality enhancement through D2D communication where devices in proximity share media segments directly. This localized segment sharing compensates for signal weaknesses at the edge of coverage areas without requiring the transmitter to increase its output power, thereby maintaining energy efficiency while improving reliability for distant devices
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for establishing a primary multicast for media content and a supplemental multicast for dropped segments of the media content are provided. A primary multicast is used to transmit segments of media content to a plurality of devices. One or more of the devices can then act as a source of a supplemental multicast, to provide segments of the media content to other devices in the event those devices fail to properly receive a segment via the primary multicast.