P2P Media Ingestion With Missing Packet Cache Insertion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current IPTV systems face challenges in efficiently ingesting and distributing media content for time-lapse and timeshift TV services, as multicast and unicast methods are either inefficient in bandwidth usage or require costly infrastructure, respectively.
Innovation Solution
A method and system architecture for ingesting media content in a peer-to-peer network, where missing data packets are identified and inserted into a memory medium with a corresponding skipped portion, allowing for efficient caching and sharing of media content without the need for large data buffering or copying.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If unicast distribution is used for time-shifted content delivery, then individual user control and content availability are improved, but network bandwidth consumption and media server resources increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the media stream into discrete packets with sequence identifiers, allowing selective retrieval and reassembly. This enables efficient caching at peer nodes where only necessary packets are stored and shared, reducing overall bandwidth consumption while maintaining time-shifted content availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces cache nodes as intermediaries between the multicast source and end users. These nodes receive the multicast stream, cache packets locally, and serve requests from multiple users simultaneously, eliminating the need for dedicated unicast streams for each user while enabling time-shifted content delivery.
2Loss of energy
If peer-to-peer distribution is implemented, then bandwidth efficiency is improved, but media content ingestion and structured sharing become complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-allocating memory spaces with specific sizes for packets before actual data reception. The system pre-calculates where missing packets should be inserted in the cache structure, preparing the framework in advance so that when packets arrive, they can be directly placed without complex buffering or copying operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements skipping by directly accessing and inserting packets into pre-computed memory positions, bypassing the need to buffer and copy large amounts of data sequentially. This rushing-through approach reduces processing complexity and memory operations while maintaining proper packet ordering for P2P sharing.
3Loss of energy
If multicast is used for live-streaming, then bandwidth efficiency for multiple viewers is improved, but time-shifted content access is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the multicast system universal by enabling the same multicast infrastructure to serve both live-viewing and time-shifted content access. Cache nodes store multicast packets and make them available for later retrieval, allowing the system to provide multiple viewing modes (live, time-shifted, on-demand) through a single unified architecture without requiring separate unicast infrastructure.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a method and system hardware for ingesting media content in a peer-to-peer network from a data stream. The data stream is made up of a sequence of packets of media data, and each packet is identified by a sequence identifier. The method includes commencing caching of the data packets from the data stream. A missing data packet is identified using the sequence identifiers of the packets and the size of the missing data packet is determined. A portion of the memory medium is skipped to provide a skipped portion of medium having no data cached therein. The skipped portion has a size corresponding to the determined size of the missing data packet. The missing data packet is then retrieved and inserted into the skipped portion of the memory medium. The system includes an ingestion element configured to receive the content in a data stream, to define blocks of media data that make up the content, to generate metadata associated with each block, the metadata identifying the construction of the block from the data stream, and to transmit the data stream as a multicast stream to other network nodes. The other network nodes include at least one cache element configured to construct at least one of the blocks from the multicast data stream in accordance with the metadata, and to cache the data block. The system also includes a database accessible to network nodes, the database recording a location of each of the cached data blocks in the network.