Seamless Media Stream Failover via Distributed Manifest Generation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing media streaming systems face issues with seamless failover and disproportionate load distribution due to reliance on ingest devices for managing media stream availability and manifest generation, leading to potential outages and overloading.
Innovation Solution
Implementing seamless stream failover by allowing distribution devices to switch to redundant ingest devices without unpublish events and distributing manifest generation across mid-tier and streaming devices, reducing the load on ingest devices and ensuring continuous playback.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If ingest devices manage manifest generation and stream availability, then stream management is centralized and simple, but ingest devices become overloaded and single points of failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the stream management functionality by separating ingest devices from manifest generation and stream availability management. Ingest devices only handle segment ingestion, while distribution devices handle manifest generation and coordinate failover, distributing the management burden across multiple components rather than concentrating it at the ingest device level.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces distribution devices as intermediaries between ingest devices and streaming devices. These distribution devices manage stream availability information, generate manifests, and coordinate failover, acting as mediators that relieve the ingest devices of management overhead and prevent them from becoming single points of failure.
2Loss of information
If ingest devices send unpublish events for stream removal, then stream availability is accurately tracked, but failover is delayed causing playback interruption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by having distribution devices proactively monitor ingest device health and pre-establish stream availability information across multiple distribution devices before failures occur. When an ingest device fails, the failover is immediate because the distribution device already has the necessary stream information ready, eliminating the delay caused by waiting for unpublish events.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where distribution devices continuously monitor the health and availability of ingest devices. This feedback loop allows the system to detect failures immediately and trigger failover without waiting for unpublish events, maintaining accurate stream availability information while minimizing failover time.
3Reliability
If multiple ingest devices are used for redundancy, then system reliability improves, but load distribution becomes disproportionate causing overloading
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by having distribution devices pre-collect and organize stream availability information from multiple ingest devices before failures occur. This allows the system to balance the load of manifest generation and stream coordination across distribution devices, preventing any single ingest device from becoming overloaded with management tasks while maintaining redundancy.
Data Source
AI summary
A device for seamlessly distributing a media stream from different ingest devices of a delivery platform. The device fails over from a first ingest device to a second ingest device in response to one or more errors from attempts to retrieve parts of the media stream from the first ingest device prior to any signaling or messaging (e.g., an unpublish event) from the first ingest device indicating that the media stream has ended, is no longer available, or is otherwise removed from the first ingest device. The device also produces manifests identifying two or more bitrates for a media stream when each of the two or more bitrates is uploaded to and ingested by a different ingest device of the delivery platform.