Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110072148 | Distributed Coordination of Network Elements for Packet Encapsulation - In one embodiment, each of a plurality of encapsulator devices receives a source stream of encoded packets in a first transport format to be converted to packets of an output stream in a second transport format for communication over a data network. Each encapsulator device generates a one or more fundamental identifying characteristics for the output stream based on information contained in one or more fields of a packet in the source stream so that the packets in the output stream generated by each of the encapsulator devices from the source stream are coordinated with respect to each other. | 03-24-2011 |
20110075997 | DECODING EARLIER FRAMES WITH DTS/PTS BACKWARD EXTRAPOLATION - In one method embodiment, receiving a video stream comprising a first compressed picture without associated time stamp information and a second compressed picture having associated first time stamp information, the second compressed picture following the first compressed picture in transmission order; deriving second time stamp information based on the first time stamp information; and processing the first compressed picture based on the second time stamp information. | 03-31-2011 |
20110119546 | RTP-BASED LOSS RECOVERY AND QUALITY MONITORING FOR NON-IP AND RAW-IP MPEG TRANSPORT FLOWS - In one method embodiment, transmitting a transport stream formatted according to a defined coding specification to a receive-and-process (RP) system, the transport stream format further comprising a non-Internet protocol (IP) format or a raw-IP format; providing a mapping stream, the mapping stream correlating the transport stream to a Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP)-formatted data stream that encapsulates the transport stream, the mapping stream comprising identifying information corresponding to the transport stream and second identifying information corresponding to the data stream; and transmitting the mapping stream to the RP system over an IP connection to enable RTP capabilities at the RP system. | 05-19-2011 |
20110216785 | BUFFER EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION OVER SUCCESSIVE INTERVALS FOR NETWORK DEVICES - In one method embodiment, receiving from the network device a multiplex of a compressed video stream and a compressed audio stream, the multiplex comprising a succession of intervals corresponding to a video program corresponding to a first playout rate; and at the start of each interval, replacing the compressed audio stream with a compressed, pitch-preserving audio stream corresponding to a second playout rate different than the first. | 09-08-2011 |
20110217025 | AUXILIARY AUDIO TRANSMISSION FOR PRESERVING SYNCHRONIZED PLAYOUT WITH PACED-DOWN VIDEO - In one method embodiment, providing a multiplex of compressed versions of a first video stream and a first audio stream, each corresponding to an audiovisual (A/V) program, the first video stream and the first audio stream each corresponding to a first playout rate and un-synchronized with each other for an initial playout portion; and providing a compressed version of a second audio stream, the second audio stream corresponding to a pitch-preserving, second playout rate different than the first playout rate, the second audio stream synchronized to the initial playout portion of the first video stream when the first video stream is played out at the second playout rate, the first audio stream replaceable by the second audio stream for the initial playout portion. | 09-08-2011 |
20110289538 | RATINGS AND QUALITY MEASUREMENTS FOR DIGITAL BROADCAST VIEWERS - In one system embodiment, a first receive-and-process (RP) system and a second RP system, the first and second RP systems each configured to receive a first broadcast stream corresponding to a service, the broadcast stream comprising either a raw Internet protocol (IP) stream or a non-IP stream, and each further configured to derive a first Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) stream and a second RTP stream, respectively, based on the first broadcast stream, the first and second RTP streams having stream parameters in common, the first and second RP systems each further configured to provide respective first and second RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) reports, the first and second RTCP reports based on the derived first and second RTP streams, the first and second RTCP reports each comprising information associated with a viewer experience, the respective information having a common benchmark as a basis for comparison. | 11-24-2011 |
20120047230 | CLIENT-INITIATED MANAGEMENT CONTROLS FOR STREAMING APPLICATIONS - A client device that is receiving streaming content on a connection from a streaming server over a network determines a need to suppress transmission of one or more packets from the streaming server on the connection over the network. The client device sends to the streaming server a message configured to cause the streaming server not to transmit the one or more packets to the client device for the connection without terminating the connection. The client device sends a further message that is configured to cause the streaming server to empty a buffer of packets that are queued for transmission but have not yet been transmitted (at a first bit rate) to the client device, so that the client device can send a request to the streaming server for transmissions of packets on the connection at a second bit rate. | 02-23-2012 |
20120284371 | Reducing Fetching Load on Cache Servers in Adaptive Streaming - In one embodiment, a method that receives at a cache server device a request from a client device for a first representation of a content chunk; determines whether the first representation is available at the cache server device; responsive to determining that the first representation is available at the cache server device, provides the first representation to the client device; responsive to determining that the first representation is unavailable at the cache server device, determines whether a congestion-like condition is present in an upstream network; and responsive to determining that the congestion-like condition is present in the upstream network, provides a second representation of the content chunk. | 11-08-2012 |
20120303760 | FINE-TUNING THE TIME FOR LEAVING/JOINING A MULTICAST SESSION DURING CHANNEL CHANGES - In one embodiment, a method that receives at a client device a unicast content stream; receives from a network an indication of a future time corresponding to when to send a join message to acquire a multicast content stream; accesses historical information about transitions between unicast and multicast content streams; and sends a join message for the multicast content stream at a time corresponding to the indicated future time subject to a time offset determined by the client device, the time offset based on the historical information. | 11-29-2012 |
20130042015 | Constant-Quality Rate-Adaptive Streaming - In one embodiment, a method that receives a manifest for plural encoded representations of a single content stream, each representation fragmented into plural chunks, each representation comprising a different quality level, the manifest listing a plurality of representations, each representation comprising the plural chunks at one of a plurality of quality levels, and requests one of the plural chunks based on selection of one of the plurality of quality levels explicitly indicated in the manifest. | 02-14-2013 |
20130089142 | Bandwidth-Friendly Representation Switching in Adaptive Streaming - Plural representations of a video stream may be provided. The plural representations may comprise a first chunk, a second chunk, and a transition chunk. The first chunk may comprise a first bitrate and the second chunk may comprise a second bitrate. The first and second chunks may be in decode order starting with an instantaneous decoding refresh (IDR) frame. The transition chunk may be in decode order starting with a non-IDR frame. Next, a request to transition from the first chunk to the second chunk may be received. Then a transition from the first chunk to the transition chunk responsive to the request may occur and the transition chunk may then be provided to another device. | 04-11-2013 |
20130198322 | SYSTEM AND METHOD TO REDUCE STREAM START-UP DELAY FOR ADAPTIVE STREAMING - A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes communicating content to a content receiver, where a first portion of the content has a first drop priority. The method also includes determining a buffer status for a buffer at the content receiver, and adjusting the first drop priority to a second drop priority for a second portion of the content based on the buffer status. In more particular embodiments, the second drop priority can be higher than the first drop priority of the first portion of the content if the buffer is full or above a threshold. Also, the second drop priority can be lower than the first drop priority of the first portion of the content if content in the buffer has not started to render. | 08-01-2013 |
20130332620 | STABILIZATION OF ADAPTIVE STREAMING VIDEO CLIENTS THROUGH RATE LIMITING - In one embodiment, a method includes identifying a current encoding rate requested by a client device for content received from a content source, setting at a network device a rate limit to limit the rate at which the content is received at the client device based on the current encoding rate, and adjusting the rate limit based on changes in the current encoding rate. The rate limit is set to allow the client device to change the current encoding rate to a next higher available encoding rate. | 12-12-2013 |
20130332623 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PREVENTING OVERESTIMATION OF AVAILABLE BANDWIDTH IN ADAPTIVE BITRATE STREAMING CLIENTS - A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes generating a bandwidth estimation for an adaptive bitrate (ABR) client; evaluating a current state of a buffer of the ABR client; and determining an encoding rate to be used for the ABR client based, at least, on the bandwidth estimation and the current state of the buffer. A fetch interval for the ABR client increases as the buffer becomes more full, while not reaching a level at which the ABR client is consuming data at a same rate at which it is downloading the data. | 12-12-2013 |
20140025835 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING RANDOMIZATION IN ADAPTIVE BITRATE STREAMING ENVIRONMENTS - A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes receiving video data at an adaptive bitrate (ABR) client that includes a buffer; determining whether a buffer level for the buffer is below a target buffer level; applying a random delay for a fetch interval associated with requesting the video data; and requesting a next segment of the video data after the random delay. The random delay can provide for a plurality of fetch times to become decorrelated from each other. | 01-23-2014 |
20140086243 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IN-BAND CHANNEL CHANGE FOR MULTICAST DATA - In one embodiment, a method includes transmitting media from a source to a plurality of receivers in a first source-specific multicast (SSM) channel and transmitting from the source to said plurality of receivers, a channel change message in an in-band transport control protocol message identifying a second SSM channel, wherein the receivers are configured to join said second SSM channel in response to said channel change message. | 03-27-2014 |
20140126653 | PRESERVING SYNCHRONIZED PLAYOUT OF AUXILIARY AUDIO TRANSMISSION - In one method embodiment, providing a multiplex of compressed versions of a first video stream and a first audio stream, each corresponding to an audiovisual (A/V) program, the first video stream and the first audio stream each corresponding to a first playout rate and un-synchronized with each other for an initial playout portion; and providing a compressed version of a second audio stream, the second audio stream corresponding to a pitch-preserving, second playout rate different than the first playout rate, the second audio stream synchronized to the initial playout portion of the first video stream when the first video stream is played out at the second playout rate, the first audio stream replaceable by the second audio stream for the initial playout portion. | 05-08-2014 |
20140215085 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ROBUST ADAPTATION IN ADAPTIVE STREAMING - A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes receiving media data at an adaptive streaming client; updating an estimated available bandwidth associated with a media stream associated with the media data; filtering the estimated available bandwidth; mapping the filtered estimated available bandwidth to a media bitrate for the media stream; and updating a target segment delay that is to control time intervals between consecutive segment downloads of the media stream. | 07-31-2014 |
20140341026 | ENHANCING PERFORMANCE OF RAPID CHANNEL CHANGES AND OTHER PLAYBACK POSITIONING CHANGES IN ADAPTIVE STREAMING - Content is received within a network by a content receiver based upon fetch requests by the content receiver to a content source, where the fetch requests for content are based upon a first adaptation logic scheme to fill a buffer of the content receiver at a selected rate and to download segments of content at selected encoding rates. A network priority is detected at the content receiver that includes an observed download rate at the content receiver that is greater than a fair share rate for other content receivers in the network. Fetch requests for content are revised in response to detection of the network priority, where the revised fetch requests are based upon a priority adaptation scheme that results in at least one of filling the buffer at a faster rate and downloading segments of content at higher encoding rates compared with the first adaptation logic scheme. | 11-20-2014 |
20150023404 | Quality Optimization with Buffer and Horizon Constraints in Adaptive Streaming - Techniques are provided for optimizing quality in adaptive streaming, where information is obtained relating to encoding bitrates and content quality scores for content segments of a content stream. The content segments of the content stream are provided by a content server and downloaded by a computing device. For each content segment, an encoding bitrate is determined for downloading the content segment from the content server, where determining the encoding bitrate for a current content segment is based upon an estimated current network bandwidth, constraints of a buffer into which downloaded content segments are stored, and also upon quality scores associated with content segments within a selected horizon extending from the current content segment to a future content segment in the content stream at an endpoint of the horizon. Each content segment with the determined bitrate for the content segment is downloaded from the content server. | 01-22-2015 |