Distributed Media Scheduling with Look-Ahead Preloading
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional cable-based television systems face limitations in viewer control over program timing and bandwidth constraints, making true video-on-demand impractical due to central bottlenecks and double switch traversal in existing dissemination approaches.
Innovation Solution
A distributed media data dissemination architecture that uses multiple devices with schedulers and senders to divide media data into regions, allowing for look-ahead requests, preloading, and priority mechanisms to optimize bandwidth usage and reduce bottlenecks, enabling efficient and timely media delivery to clients.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a central collector and forwarder is used to route television programming portions, then centralized control is achieved, but bandwidth bottlenecks and performance limitations occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the centralized collector and forwarder into multiple distributed senders, each capable of independently sending media data blocks to clients. This segmentation eliminates the single-point bottleneck while maintaining coordinated control through the scheduler, thereby improving bandwidth utilization without sacrificing operational control.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a new dimensional approach by implementing a look-ahead region that anticipates future media data block requests. This allows the system to pre-load and prepare data in advance, adding a temporal dimension to data transmission that reduces bottlenecks by smoothing out demand peaks.
2Ease of operation
If television programming portions traverse the network switch twice (to central collector and back), then centralized routing is maintained, but communication traffic and latency increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the media data transmission path from the centralized routing loop. Distributed senders directly transmit media data blocks to clients without requiring return trips through the central collector and network switch, eliminating redundant traffic and reducing latency while maintaining scheduling control.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action through the look-ahead region, which pre-loads media data blocks into the sender's memory before they are actually requested. This anticipatory preparation reduces communication latency by having data ready in advance, eliminating the need for repeated switch traversals when data is actually needed.
3Productivity
If all programming content is broadcast at a single time, then cable network bandwidth is utilized, but viewer control over program timing is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic scheduling where the scheduler and distributed senders adapt transmission timing based on individual client requests. Media data blocks are sent only when needed by specific clients, allowing viewers to control program timing while the system dynamically adjusts bandwidth allocation to maintain efficient utilization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent incorporates feedback mechanisms where clients send requests for specific media data blocks, and the scheduler adjusts transmission based on this feedback. This allows the system to respond to viewer control needs while optimizing bandwidth utilization through demand-driven transmission rather than blind broadcasting.
4Productivity
If media data blocks are pre-loaded into RAM based on look-ahead requests, then bandwidth utilization is improved, but memory usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by pre-loading only the specific media data blocks identified in the look-ahead region, rather than loading all possible data. This selective pre-loading improves bandwidth utilization for anticipated requests while limiting memory usage to only the necessary portion of data blocks.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of data availability from on-demand loading to pre-loaded state for specific blocks. By changing the state of selected media data blocks from stored-on-disk to pre-loaded-in-RAM based on look-ahead predictions, the system improves transmission speed and bandwidth utilization while controlling memory usage through selective parameter changes.
Data Source
AI summary
Media data is distributed across multiple devices, and the media data is sent therefrom by multiple senders under control of multiple schedulers. For media data blocks in a look-ahead region, schedulers transmit look ahead requests to senders in order to reserve upcoming media data blocks. In a described implementation, a look ahead request identifies a media data block. The receiving sender increments a block usage counter corresponding to the identified media data block responsive to the look ahead request. As part of a look ahead operation, if the media data block is not already in RAM, the sender preloads the media data block into RAM. While the block usage counter indicates that the corresponding media data block is locked, the sender maintains the media data block in RAM. A look ahead cancel message transmitted from the scheduler to the sender prompts the sender to decrement the block usage counter.