Network Adaptive Rate Limiting for Streaming Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Adaptive bitrate streaming clients face difficulties in estimating their share of bandwidth, leading to instabilities and frequent bitrate changes when competing for bandwidth at bottleneck links, which can result in a poor user experience.
Innovation Solution
Implementing network-based adaptive rate limiting on a per-session basis by adjusting bitrate limits using traffic policing and shaping techniques, with a system that monitors network traffic and calculates session rate limits based on bottleneck link and session state information, ensuring stable rate selections and improved user experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If adaptive bitrate streaming clients compete for bandwidth at bottleneck links without network-based rate limiting, then clients can independently adjust their streaming rates, but bandwidth estimation becomes inaccurate leading to instabilities and frequent bitrate changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a network-based rate limiter as an intermediary component between the streaming server and clients. This rate limiter monitors actual bandwidth usage at bottleneck links and dynamically adjusts rate limits for each client session, serving as a mediator that prevents clients from making inaccurate bandwidth estimates and frequent bitrate changes while preserving adaptive streaming functionality
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the rate limiter continuously monitors bandwidth consumption and session state information, then uses this feedback to dynamically adjust rate limits. This closed-loop control stabilizes bitrate by preventing clients from overestimating available bandwidth, thereby reducing unnecessary bitrate fluctuations while maintaining adaptability
2Stability of the object's composition
If network-based adaptive rate limiting is implemented to stabilize bitrate, then bandwidth allocation becomes more controlled, but system complexity increases due to traffic policing and shaping requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the rate limiting functionality into modular components including session state information tracking, bandwidth monitoring, and dynamic rate limit adjustment mechanisms. This segmentation allows the complex rate limiting system to be implemented as separate, manageable modules that can be independently configured and maintained, reducing overall system complexity while achieving bitrate stabilization
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus can include a session rate limit calculator and a rate limiter. The session rate limit calculator can be configured to compute a session rate limit for a given session of a plurality of active streaming media sessions based on state information for the given session and state information for a downstream bottleneck link to which the apparatus feeds the plurality of active streaming media sessions. The rate limiter can be configured to control downstream traffic for the given session based on the computed session rate limit and to provide corresponding rate-limited downstream traffic for the given session.