Satellite Deltacasting Bandwidth Utilization
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Solution Overview
Problem
In satellite communications systems, the shared forward link bandwidth is often underutilized due to redundancies in communications, leading to sub-optimal utilization and increased costs.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of deltacasting techniques, which involve intercepting data blocks, generating fingerprints, and determining whether to multicast based on content set identifiers, allowing for efficient multicasting and optimized bandwidth utilization by identifying and exploiting opportunities for increased link utilization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional unicast communication is used over shared forward link, then each user receives dedicated data transmission, but bandwidth utilization is sub-optimal due to redundancies and repeated transmissions of same content to multiple users
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple unicast data streams into a single multicast stream by identifying common content across multiple user requests. The system intercepts data blocks, generates fingerprints, and when multiple users request identical or similar content, it merges these into a single multicast transmission that serves all users simultaneously, thereby improving bandwidth utilization and eliminating redundant transmissions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates fingerprint copies of data block content to identify and match identical content across different user requests. By generating and comparing fingerprints (hash values) of intercepted data blocks, the system can determine whether multiple users are requesting the same content without examining the actual data, enabling efficient multicast decisions that reduce redundant transmissions.
2Productivity
If multicast is implemented without content identification, then bandwidth utilization improves, but system complexity increases due to need for content matching and fingerprint generation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex content comparison mechanisms with fingerprint-based identification. Instead of comparing actual data block content (which would be computationally intensive), the system generates compact fingerprint representations (hash values) of the content and compares these fingerprints. This substitution dramatically reduces processing complexity while maintaining accurate content identification for multicast decisions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces fingerprint generation and content set identifier mechanisms as intermediary layers between data interception and multicast decision-making. These intermediaries simplify the core logic by providing standardized content identification through fingerprints and predefined content set rules, making the overall system more manageable and less complex despite the added functionality.
3Loss of energy
If deltacasting techniques are implemented with fingerprint generation and content set identifiers, then redundancies are minimized and bandwidth utilization is optimized, but processing overhead and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-defining content sets and their associated identifiers before actual data transmission occurs. By establishing content set templates and fingerprint comparison rules in advance, the system reduces real-time processing complexity. When data blocks are intercepted, the system only needs to generate fingerprints and match them against predefined content sets, rather than making complex decisions from scratch for each transmission.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, apparatuses, and systems are provided for improving utilization of the satellite communications system through various “deltacasting” techniques for handling content sets (e.g., feeds or websites). Embodiments operate in a client-server context, including a server optimizer, a client optimizer, and, in some embodiments, a pre-positioning client. Within this client-server context, content sets are multicast (e.g., anticipatorily pre-positioned in a local dictionary) to end users of the communications system and are handled at the content set level, according to set-level metadata and/or user preferences. In some embodiments, when locally stored information from the content sets is requested by a user, deltacasting techniques are used to generate fingerprints for use in identifying and exploit multicasting and/or other opportunities for increased utilization of links of the communications system.