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US 10,567,816 B2Granted
Delivering content
AssigneeComcast Cable Communications, LLC
InventorsWeidong Mao, Robert Gaydos
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems are disclosed for delivery of one or more channels of programming in an IP network. An edge gateway device may retrieve segments of programming, based on information in a manifest file, and output the segments via multicast to one or more edge devices. Advertising content may be inserted, or replaced if already present, before the segments are multicast. Segments encoded at various bit rates may be available for retrieval. Segments may be selected for retrieval based in part on a quality indicator associated with each segment.
Claims21
A method comprising:
- transmitting, by an edge gateway device, a request for a manifest file, wherein the manifest file comprises segment information associated with a plurality of segments of first content, wherein one or more segments of the plurality of segments correspond to a first portion of the first content, and wherein each of the one or more segments of the plurality of segments is encoded at a different bit rate;
- selecting, by the edge gateway device, a first segment of the one or more segments, wherein the selecting is based on:
- a difference between a first complexity of the first portion of the first content and a second complexity of a previous portion of the first content;
- and
- a difference between a first popularity of the first portion of the first content and a second popularity of the previous portion of the first content;
- retrieving, by the edge gateway device and via a first communication pathway, the selected first segment;
- and
- transmitting, by the edge gateway device, to an edge device, and via a second communication pathway, the selected first segment.
5 more elements
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a computing device via an access network, a manifest file comprising access information for a first portion of content, wherein the first portion of content is available as a first segment having a first bit rate encoding and as a second segment having a second bit rate encoding;
- determining a difference between a first complexity of the first portion of the content and a second complexity of a previous portion of the content;
- determining a difference between a first popularity of the first portion of the content and a second popularity of the previous portion of the content;
- determining, by the computing device and based on the difference between the complexities and the difference between the popularities, one segment of the first segment and the second segment;
- retrieving, by the computing device, the determined one segment;
- and
- transmitting, by the computing device, the determined one segment.
4 more elements
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a computing device via a first network, a manifest file comprising access information for a portion of content, wherein the portion of content is available as a first segment having a first bit rate encoding and as a second segment having a second bit rate encoding, lower than the first bit rate encoding, and wherein the access information comprises an indicator indicative of a first scene complexity of the portion of content;
- determining, by the computing device, one segment of the first segment and the second segment, wherein the determining is based on:
- a determination that the first scene complexity of the portion of content is different from a second scene complexity of a previous portion of content;
- and
- a determination that a first popularity of the portion of content is different from a second popularity of the previous portion of content;
- retrieving, by the computing device, the determined one segment;
- and
- transmitting, by the computing device, the determined one segment via a second network.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.