Peer-to-Peer Video Chunk Distribution for Cost Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current video delivery systems face challenges in efficiently managing increasing video traffic, leading to high infrastructure costs and constrained playback quality due to linear cost increases with video bytes consumed, and lack a system that optimizes network infrastructure for efficient video delivery.
Innovation Solution
A peer-to-peer system that distributes video chunks across multiple peer devices and servers, using a communication protocol to filter and fetch video chunks based on cost, ensuring minimal delivery cost and continuous playback by selecting the most efficient peer devices and servers for video delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If centralized video servers are used to deliver videos, then video delivery is simple to implement, but infrastructure costs increase linearly with video bytes consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments video content into multiple chunks and distributes them across a peer-to-peer network. Instead of a single centralized server handling all video delivery, the system divides the video data and spreads it across multiple peer devices, reducing the burden on any single infrastructure component and lowering overall delivery costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a self-service mechanism where peer devices automatically contribute their own video chunks to the delivery network. When a peer requests video content, it not only receives chunks from other peers but also contributes its own cached chunks to help other peers, creating a self-sustaining delivery system that reduces infrastructure costs.
2Ease of operation
If centralized video servers are used to deliver videos, then video delivery infrastructure is simple to manage, but playback quality is constrained by the weakest network capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by allowing different peers to contribute video chunks at different quality levels based on their individual network capacities. Each peer can contribute chunks appropriate to its network conditions, and the receiving peer can select optimal chunks from multiple sources, ensuring high playback quality without requiring all infrastructure components to have uniform high capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges multiple video chunk sources from different peers into a single coherent video stream. By combining chunks from multiple peers with varying network capacities, the system achieves high playback quality that exceeds what any single peer could provide alone, while maintaining simple infrastructure management.
3Quantity of substance
If video chunks are fetched from multiple peer devices and servers, then delivery cost is minimized, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes key parameters such as peer selection criteria, chunk fetching strategies, and cost calculation metrics to optimize delivery cost. By dynamically adjusting these parameters based on network conditions and peer contributions, the system achieves low delivery cost while managing complexity through parameter optimization rather than complex architecture.
4Quantity of substance
If peer devices contribute video chunks to the network, then infrastructure cost is reduced, but reliability depends on peer availability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements beforehand cushioning by having peers cache video chunks in advance and maintain redundancy in the network. When a peer becomes unavailable, other peers that have cached the same chunks can continue to serve the network, ensuring continuous operation and reducing reliance on any single peer's availability.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and a method are disclosed for delivering a video to a destination device using multiple sources and multiple protocols. The video can be on demand or a live video. A video is divided into several chunks distributed across devices and servers in the network. A node is selected for delivering a video chunk based on criteria including the cost of delivery of the chunk from the node to the destination node. This also improves the throughput of the entire system. Different nodes can use different communication protocols for delivering chunks of videos. Portions of videos are forward-cached to a node before a request for the video is made by the node. Activities associated with a device are gathered to determine a profile for the device. The profile of the device is used to select videos to be forward-cached to the peer device.