Gateway Adaptive Bit Rate Multicast Streaming
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Legacy content delivery networks lack adaptive bit rate streaming capabilities, preventing seamless content delivery to user devices with varying network bandwidth conditions and device capabilities.
Innovation Solution
A gateway device is introduced to identify and segment multicast streams, generate a manifest file listing available bit rates and corresponding URLs, enabling user devices to adaptively retrieve content segments based on network conditions and device capabilities, even if the content delivery network does not support adaptive bit rate streaming.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If legacy content delivery networks are used without adaptive bit rate streaming capabilities, then device complexity is reduced and ease of manufacture is improved, but adaptability to different network bandwidth conditions and device capabilities deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a gateway device as an intermediary component between the legacy content delivery network and user devices. This gateway performs transcoding of multicast streams into multiple bit rate versions and generates manifest files, thereby enabling adaptive bit rate streaming functionality without requiring the entire content delivery network to be upgraded. The gateway acts as a mediator that bridges the gap between legacy infrastructure and modern adaptive streaming requirements.
2Adaptability or versatility
If adaptive bit rate streaming is implemented throughout the entire content delivery network, then adaptability to different device capabilities is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the adaptive bit rate streaming functionality into a separate gateway component rather than implementing it throughout the entire content delivery network. The gateway specifically handles the transcoding and manifest generation tasks, while the rest of the network can remain as legacy infrastructure. This segmentation allows adaptive streaming to be implemented in a localized manner, reducing the overall complexity and manufacturing cost of upgrading the entire network.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multicast streams are transcoded into multiple bit rates, then adaptability to varying network conditions is improved, but processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway device performs transcoding of multicast streams into multiple bit rate versions in advance, before the actual streaming to user devices. By preparing multiple bit rate versions beforehand and storing them, the system can quickly respond to changing network conditions by simply selecting from the pre-encoded versions rather than performing real-time transcoding. This preliminary action significantly reduces the processing time required during actual content delivery.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for adaptive bit rate distribution of multicast streams may include one or more processors and a memory. The one or more processors may be configured to identify streams, such as multicast streams, transmitted by a content delivery network. The streams may each contain a content item that is encoded at a different bit rate for each stream. The one or more processors may determine segments of the streams, for example based on time stamps associated with the content item or markers of the streams. The one or more processors may transmit a first segment of a first stream encoded at a first bit rate to a user device in response to a request therefor and, upon completing the transmission of the first segment, transmit a second segment of a second stream encoded at a second bit rate to the user device in response to a request therefor.