Intelligent Media Stream Fragment Caching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current media stream caching mechanisms are inefficient, particularly for devices with limited resources, as they require parsing entire headers for MPEG-4 files, leading to high latency and network resource consumption, and do not effectively utilize user viewing characteristics to select frequently accessed fragments for caching.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a fragmented MPEG-4 framework with intelligent caching mechanisms that allow devices to monitor and analyze media streams and user viewing characteristics to selectively cache frequently accessed fragments, such as introduction and end sequences, and using fragment servers to manage and distribute cached fragments across distributed and redundant storage systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If devices parse entire headers for MPEG-4 files to access media streams, then complete media stream information is obtained, but latency and network resource consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the MPEG-4 file structure by introducing separate metadata headers that contain only essential indexing information (fragment identifiers, timestamps, URLs) rather than complete media stream data. This allows devices to access fragment locations without parsing entire file headers, reducing latency and processing complexity while maintaining complete media stream reconstruction capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts critical fragment identification and location information from the complete MPEG-4 file structure and places it in separate, lightweight metadata headers. This extraction allows devices to obtain fragment indexing information quickly without processing the full header structure, thereby reducing latency and network resource consumption while preserving access to complete media stream information when needed.
2Productivity
If devices cache all media stream fragments, then playback efficiency is improved, but device storage and memory resources are excessively consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-computing and storing fragment indexing information (identifiers, timestamps, URLs) in metadata headers during the encoding and segmentation phase. This preliminary organization of fragment data allows devices to efficiently determine which fragments to cache and retrieve without needing to cache all fragments, thereby improving playback efficiency while conserving storage resources through selective caching based on the metadata index.
3Loss of energy
If fragment servers manage distributed caching, then network resource consumption is reduced, but system complexity and infrastructure requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces fragment servers as intermediary components that manage distributed caching across the network. These servers use the metadata header information to intelligently store and retrieve media stream fragments, reducing redundant data transmission and network resource consumption. The intermediary fragment servers handle the complexity of distributed cache management, allowing client devices to benefit from reduced network usage without bearing the full system infrastructure complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A media stream delivery system encodes numerous media streams into media stream fragments. The media stream delivery system may encode each media stream into a number of variants each having different resolutions, frame rates, audio quality levels, etc. Devices access the media stream fragments from a fragment server in order to reconstruct a particular media stream for playback. A device may perform caching of media stream fragments so that particular fragments need not be accessed from a fragment server. The device monitors and analyzes media streams and viewing characteristics to intelligently select fragments that will likely be needed again, such as fragments associated with repeated advertisements, introduction sequences, and end sequences.