Server-Push Media Streaming Bandwidth Adaptation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current media streaming techniques, such as DASH, face inefficiencies in transmission bandwidth consumption and latency due to client-driven bitrate adaptivity, which strains the network and makes fair bandwidth allocation among multiple clients difficult.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a server-push technology that allows the server to proactively send media content at varying bitrates without explicit client queries, shifting control from the client to the server for bitrate adaptation, thereby reducing upstream bandwidth consumption and latency, and enabling fair bandwidth distribution among clients.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If client-driven bitrate adaptivity is used in DASH streaming, then the client can adapt to varying reception conditions, but upstream bandwidth consumption increases due to continuous communication overhead between server and client
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional client-driven bitrate adaptation model by implementing server-driven bitrate adaptation. Instead of the client continuously querying the server for bitrate changes, the server proactively pushes bitrate adaptation decisions to the client based on network conditions and client buffer status, thereby reducing upstream communication overhead while maintaining adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the bitrate adaptation control logic from the client side and relocates it to the server side. The server now holds the primary control authority for bitrate decisions, sending only necessary adaptation parameters to the client, which reduces the communication burden on the upstream channel while preserving adaptive streaming capabilities.
2Adaptability or versatility
If client-driven bitrate adaptivity is implemented, then streaming can adapt to network conditions, but fair bandwidth allocation among multiple clients becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the server receives status information from multiple clients about their buffer levels and network conditions, then centrally coordinates bitrate adaptations to ensure fair bandwidth allocation. The server can prioritize clients based on their current state and adjust streaming parameters to balance resource distribution across all connected clients.
Solution Approach 2:
The server is designed to handle multiple clients simultaneously with a unified bitrate adaptation control mechanism. Instead of each client independently managing its own bitrate (which leads to inefficient resource usage), the server provides universal control that can optimize bandwidth allocation across all clients based on overall system conditions.
3Quantity of substance
If the server waits for client queries before sending media segments, then bandwidth can be conserved, but streaming latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by having the server proactively push media segments and bitrate adaptation information to clients before the client explicitly requests them. The server anticipates client needs and sends data in advance, reducing the round-trip time and latency inherent in traditional request-response models while maintaining efficient bandwidth usage through server-controlled transmission timing.
Data Source
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AI summary
Media streaming is made more efficient in terms of, for example, transmission bitrate consumption, transmission latency and/or fair trade of transmission capacity among several clients by sending the media content to the client by pushing the media content rather than the client pulling the media content from the server. Pushing the media content to the client using a server-push technology of a network protocol at a varying bitrate enables to shift, at least partially, the control over the streaming from the client towards the sending device such as the server or proxy, namely in that, for example, the server may continue to push segments of the media content to the client even without receiving explicit queries or directives for these segments from the client thereby reducing upstream bandwidth consumption. As far as the bitrate adaption is concerned, the server may act as a slave remotely controlled by the client in that the media content is pushed at a bitrate depending on the client's most recently sent information such as reception situation information explicitly indicating the bitrate to be used. Favorably, pushing the media content may be commenced without having yet received any reception situation information from the client.