Gateway Network Arbiter for Live Stream Bandwidth Arbitration
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Content delivery systems face challenges in managing available bandwidth, particularly when downloading time-sensitive content like live streams alongside non-time-sensitive content, where adaptive bitrate mechanisms can detrimentally reduce the quality of live content to accommodate other downloads.
Innovation Solution
A gateway system with a network arbiter prioritizes high-priority content by blocking data transfer for lower-priority content when high-priority content is being received, ensuring uncontended network access and maintaining quality for critical content through flow control mechanisms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If adaptive bitrate mechanism is used for live content download, then content delivery reliability is improved by adjusting bitrate according to bandwidth, but content quality deteriorates when concurrent non-time-sensitive content is downloaded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments content requests into different priority levels (high priority for time-sensitive content, low priority for non-time-sensitive content). The network arbiter then manages flow buffers and data transfer separately for each priority level, allowing high-priority content to receive guaranteed bandwidth while low-priority content shares remaining bandwidth. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by ensuring quality for critical content while maintaining delivery reliability through prioritized resource allocation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a network arbiter as an intermediary component between the content delivery system and the network interface. This arbiter mediates bandwidth allocation by monitoring priority levels and controlling data transfer timing. The arbiter ensures that high-priority content receives uncontended network access while allowing low-priority content to use available bandwidth during high-priority content's idle periods, thus resolving the quality-reliability contradiction through controlled intermediary management.
2Productivity
If bandwidth is allocated to multiple concurrent content downloads, then system productivity is improved by serving multiple requests, but time-sensitive content suffers from bandwidth contention and quality degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the content delivery system into priority-based flow buffers, separating time-sensitive and non-time-sensitive content streams. The network arbiter manages these segments independently, ensuring that high-priority content maintains dedicated bandwidth for reliable delivery while low-priority content utilizes available capacity during high-priority idle periods. This segmentation enables simultaneous service of multiple requests without compromising time-sensitive content reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-establishing priority levels and reserving bandwidth for high-priority content before actual data transfer begins. The network arbiter proactively identifies time-sensitive content and secures dedicated network resources in advance, preventing bandwidth contention from affecting delivery reliability. This preliminary resource reservation allows the system to maintain high productivity through concurrent downloads while ensuring time-sensitive content receives guaranteed service.
3Device complexity
If network bandwidth is shared among multiple content flows, then device complexity is reduced by using standard bandwidth allocation, but content delivery performance deteriorates due to uncontended access requirements for live content
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments bandwidth management into priority-based flow buffers with distinct control paths. The network arbiter implements simple priority rules (high-priority content gets uncontended access, low-priority content shares remaining bandwidth) rather than complex dynamic allocation algorithms. This segmentation achieves effective bandwidth management with minimal complexity while maintaining high delivery performance for time-sensitive content through guaranteed uncontended access.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the bandwidth allocation parameter from uniform sharing to priority-based differentiation. The network arbiter modifies bandwidth assignment based on content priority levels, reserving dedicated bandwidth for high-priority time-sensitive content while allowing low-priority content to share remaining capacity. This parameter change simplifies management by using clear priority rules rather than complex dynamic adjustment, while significantly improving delivery performance for critical content through guaranteed uncontended network access.
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, a gateway includes a memory, and a processor to, in response to receiving a plurality of content requests, generate a plurality of network flows and flow buffers, each one content request of the plurality of content requests being served by one network flow of the plurality of network flows, and one flow buffer of the plurality of flow buffers, the one flow buffer being included in the memory, the plurality of network flows including a first flow and a second flow, the first flow serving one of the plurality of requests having a first priority level, the second flow serving one of the plurality of requests having a second priority level, the first priority level being higher than the second priority level, and run a network arbiter to give prioritize reading the first flow over reading the second flow when the first flow is non-idle.