Multimedia Stream Acquisition with Combined Manifest and License Requests
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional multimedia content provisioning systems experience significant delays between the user initiating playback and receiving the media content due to multiple back-and-forth trips between the client device and the server for manifest and license requests, which can frustrate users and deter them from using the service.
Innovation Solution
Combining manifest requests and license requests into a single request to reduce the number of trips between the client device and the server, allowing for parallel processing of parts of the request, thereby reducing wait times and improving the media playback experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If separate manifest requests and license requests are processed sequentially between client device and server, then proper validation and licensing can be ensured, but the user waits too long before receiving media content
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines separate manifest requests and license requests into a single unified request message that includes both manifest data and license challenge data. This merging allows the server to process both validation and licensing in one interaction, eliminating the sequential delay between separate requests while maintaining proper security checks.
Solution Approach 2:
The client device performs preliminary actions by including the license challenge data within the manifest request itself, rather than waiting for the manifest response before initiating the license request. This preliminary inclusion of licensing information enables parallel processing of validation and licensing at the server side, significantly reducing user wait time.
2Measurement precision
If multiple back-and-forth trips are made between client device and server for manifest and license requests, then proper authentication and content identification can be achieved, but the number of communication trips increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple communication trips into a single unified request-response cycle. The manifest request and license request are combined into one message exchange, reducing the number of round trips from two (manifest request-response, then license request-response) to one (combined manifest and license request-response), while maintaining accurate content identification and authentication.
3Ease of operation
If the system processes manifest requests and license requests separately, then each request can be handled independently, but the overall content delivery time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The client device prepares and includes license challenge data in advance within the manifest request message, enabling the server to process both manifest validation and license generation simultaneously upon receiving the single combined request, rather than waiting for sequential processing of separate requests.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the processing of manifest requests and license requests into a single unified server-side operation. The server validates the manifest and generates the license in one processing cycle triggered by the combined client request, maintaining the independence of each processing function while eliminating the time loss from sequential execution.
Data Source
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AI summary
The disclosed computer-implemented method may include receiving, from a client device, a request for multimedia content, where the request includes both a manifest request that includes client identification data and a license request that includes a license challenge. The method may further include validating the received request for multimedia content using the client identification data in the manifest request and generating a manifest response that includes an identification of a specified multimedia content stream that is to be provided to the client device. The method may also include acquiring at least one license in response to the license request, where the license includes a response to the license challenge having various content keys, and then providing the specified multimedia content stream, including the generated manifest response and the acquired license, to the client device. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.