Live Media Streaming Clock Locking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Delivering live media content over data communication networks poses challenges such as synchronization, coordination, and load balancing, especially when multiple end-user devices request the same content simultaneously, leading to inefficiencies and potential delays in receiving the media stream.
Innovation Solution
The method involves organizing live media content into segments, correlating timing data with a system clock, transcoding these segments, and creating client manifests that allow clients to access requested segments with offset time values, ensuring efficient delivery and synchronization across various devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple end user devices request the same live media content simultaneously, then the delivery system must handle concurrent requests, but this creates transmission load balancing problems and increases system burden
Solution Approach 1:
The live media content is divided into discrete segments with specific time ranges. Each segment can be independently delivered to multiple clients, allowing the system to handle concurrent requests efficiently by serving different segment combinations to different clients based on their playback positions and network conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-generates and stores multiple client manifests that map segment time ranges to delivery URLs before clients request them. When concurrent requests arrive, the system can immediately serve pre-prepared manifests without real-time computation, reducing the delivery system burden during peak concurrent access.
2Speed
If the system delivers live media content in real-time with minimal processing, then delivery speed is improved, but synchronization and coordination between multiple clients become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
A centralized timing server acts as an intermediary between the media delivery system and multiple clients. It provides authoritative timing information that all clients use to synchronize their playback. Each client manifest includes timing data that references this central time source, ensuring all clients remain synchronized despite receiving content at different speeds or from different delivery nodes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses offset time values in client manifests to adjust the timing parameters for different clients based on their network conditions and playback positions. This allows the system to maintain synchronization reliability while accommodating variations in delivery speed to different clients.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the system creates customized client manifests for each client request, then client-specific optimization is improved, but the processing time and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-generates multiple client manifests with different timing offsets and segment configurations before clients arrive. These manifests are stored and can be quickly assigned to clients based on their device characteristics and network conditions, avoiding real-time manifest creation and reducing processing time.
Solution Approach 2:
A small set of standardized client manifest templates serves multiple clients with similar characteristics. Instead of creating completely customized manifests for each client, the system selects and adjusts pre-defined templates, reducing the complexity and time required for manifest generation while still providing client-specific optimization.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems are disclosed for providing live media streaming over a communication network. Timing data of a received live media stream is mapped to time values from a system clock. The time values are used for transmission of the media stream.