Multicast-to-Unicast Agent for Adaptive Streaming Bandwidth Reduction

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current HTTP-based adaptive bitrate streaming technologies face scalability issues and Quality of Experience (QoE) problems due to the unicast nature of content delivery, which is challenging for Content Delivery Network (CDN) operators to address, especially when upgrading client devices to support new infrastructure or services.

Innovation Solution

A method and system that redirect requests for audio-visual content from client devices to an agent in an interconnecting device, which acts as a relay between the content equipment and the client, allowing for multicast streaming and reducing network bandwidth and processing resources consumption, while enabling seamless adoption of new infrastructure or services without requiring client device upgrades.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If unicast HTTP streaming is used for content delivery, then client devices can receive audio-visual content with adaptive bitrate, but network bandwidth consumption increases and scalability deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveadaptive bitrate streamingVSAvoidnetwork bandwidth consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The content delivery is segmented into multicast streams for bulk distribution and unicast streams for individual client adaptation. The system divides the delivery mechanism into two parts: a shared multicast component that reduces overall bandwidth consumption, and individual unicast components that maintain adaptive bitrate capabilities for each client device.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent merges multicast and unicast streaming approaches into a hybrid system. Multicast streams are combined with unicast delivery mechanisms, allowing the system to leverage the bandwidth efficiency of multicast while preserving the adaptive bitrate control of unicast through the agent's relay functionality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

2Productivity

If unicast HTTP streaming is implemented for live content, then content can be delivered to multiple clients, but the number of concurrent sessions increases and CDN scalability worsens

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent delivery capabilityVSAvoidCDN infrastructure complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

A multicast-to-unicast agent is introduced as an intermediary component in the CDN infrastructure. This agent receives multicast streams and relays them to client devices as unicast streams, enabling the CDN to scale efficiently by reducing the number of direct unicast sessions while maintaining individualized content delivery through the intermediary's coordination.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Reliability

If TCP-based HTTP streaming is used, then data integrity is guaranteed, but latency increases and connection loss impacts Quality of Experience

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata integrityVSAvoidstreaming latency

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent changes the transport protocol parameter from TCP to UDP for the multicast streaming portion. This parameter change reduces latency and improves real-time performance by eliminating TCP's overhead and connection management, while the agent ensures reliable delivery through its relay mechanism and error handling capabilities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

4Loss of energy

If new CDN infrastructure or services are introduced, then network efficiency improves, but client device compatibility deteriorates requiring costly upgrades

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenetwork bandwidth consumptionVSAvoidclient device compatibility

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of energyVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The multicast-to-unicast agent serves as an intermediary that shields client devices from new infrastructure requirements. The agent handles the complexity of interacting with multicast streams and new CDN services, while presenting a familiar unicast HTTP interface to clients, thus maintaining backward compatibility without requiring client device upgrades.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system segments the complexity of new infrastructure integration into the CDN side (handled by the agent) while keeping the client side simple and compatible. This segmentation allows efficient multicast-based delivery in the network infrastructure while maintaining simple unicast-based interfaces at the client level.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS11277456B2System and method for delivering an audio-visual con tent to a client device

Publication Date: 2022.03.15 BROADPEAK

AI summary

For delivering an audio-visual content to a client device, an interconnecting device interconnecting a first network to a second network, the client device being connected to the second network, an equipment adapted to provide the audio-visual content being connected to the first network, said equipment performs: receiving, from the client device, a first request for receiving the audio-visual content; transmitting a redirecting message to the client device, said redirecting message redirecting the client device toward an agent implemented in the interconnecting device. Furthermore, said agent performs: receiving, from the client device, a second request for receiving the audio-visual content; acting as a relay between said equipment and the client device.