Heartbeat Messaging for Seamless Media Session Shifting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) systems lack a seamless method for shifting media sessions between clients or devices while maintaining playback status and position, leading to disruptions and inefficiencies in managing simultaneous media streams for users.
Innovation Solution
Implementing 'heartbeat' messaging that continuously updates a remote server with media playback status and position, allowing for session shifting and controlling simultaneous streams by storing this information in a database, enabling smooth continuation of media sessions across different devices and managing user stream limits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If HLS systems stream media without heartbeat messaging, then device complexity is reduced, but the ability to maintain playback status and enable seamless session shifting between devices deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements heartbeat messaging as a feedback mechanism where clients periodically send their playback status (playing, paused, stopped) and position information to the server. This feedback loop enables the server to track active sessions and facilitate seamless session shifting between devices while maintaining relatively simple client-side implementation.
2Reliability
If heartbeat messaging is implemented to track playback status, then reliability of session management is improved, but server processing requirements and messaging overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuous monitoring, the system uses periodic heartbeat messages sent at intervals (e.g., every 30 seconds) to update playback status. This periodic action maintains reliable session tracking while significantly reducing server processing requirements compared to continuous monitoring approaches.
Solution Approach 2:
The system sends heartbeat messages only when necessary (e.g., when playback status changes or at periodic intervals) rather than continuously, optimizing the balance between maintaining accurate session tracking and minimizing server resource consumption.
3Ease of operation
If continuous heartbeat messaging is used to maintain playback position, then seamless session continuation is improved, but network bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses periodic heartbeat messaging at reasonable intervals (e.g., 30 seconds) rather than continuous messaging, maintaining sufficient playback position accuracy for seamless session continuation while optimizing network bandwidth consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts messaging frequency based on playback conditions, sending heartbeats more frequently when needed (e.g., during active playback) and less frequently when idle, optimizing the balance between session continuity and bandwidth efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
A client device plays streaming media, and obtains a media playback position of the media at a first time. The client device sends a first message from the client device to a server, wherein the first message includes the media playback position and where the media playback position includes a time reference associated with playback of the media at the first time. The client device receives a first reply message from the server, wherein the first reply message indicates a time period. The client device sends a second message from the first client to the server, based on expiration of the time period, wherein the second message includes a media playback position of the media at a second time during the playing of the streaming media that is different than the first time.