US 11,910,053 B2 · Spread channel multi-CDN streaming

Abstract

Traditional streaming sequentially downloads content fragments one by one from one CDN. The disclosed streaming method concurrently downloads content fragments from multiple CDNs. It first creates a sequence of bundles of fragments, and then downloads a subsequent bundle by spreading requests to download the fragments within the bundle to multiple CDNs simultaneously with each CDN acting as a channel to download a different fragment. Depending on business needs, various request dispatching strategies can be deployed. When there is a volume based pricing contract with a CDN, a dispatch strategy is to send more requests to the CDN in order to reach contract volume therefore reduce unit cost. Another strategy is to send the request for the earliest fragment to the fastest CDN in order to reduce latency and possibility of buffer underrun. Fault tolerance can be provided by re-routing a request failed at a CDN to another CDN.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A method for streaming multimedia content by a streaming device, the method comprising:

sending a first request to a first content distribution network (CDN) of a plurality of CDNs, the first request for requesting download of a first segment of the multimedia content for streaming by the streaming device;
sending a second request to a second CDN of the plurality of CDNs, the second request for requesting download of a second segment of the multimedia content for streaming by the streaming device;
storing the first segment in response to receiving the first segment from the first CDN;
and
storing the second segment in response to receiving the second segment from the second CDN,
wherein:
the first segment is stored at a first cache in response to receiving the first segment from the first CDN;
and
the second segment is stored at a second cache in response to receiving the second segment from the second CDN, and
wherein:
the streaming device is coupled to a connection provided by an Internet service provider (ISP);
and
based on determining that a download speed of the first CDN is less than a download speed of the ISP, the second request is sent to the second CDN.

10 more elements

A machine-readable non-transitory medium having stored thereon machine-executable instructions for streaming multimedia content by a streaming device, the instructions comprising:

sending a first request to a first content distribution network (CDN) of a plurality of CDNs, the first request for requesting download of a first segment of the multimedia content for streaming by the streaming device;
sending a second request to a second CDN of the plurality of CDNs, the second request for requesting download of a second segment of the multimedia content for streaming by the streaming device;
storing the first segment in response to receiving the first segment from the first CDN;
and
storing the second segment in response to receiving the second segment from the second CDN,
wherein:
the first segment is stored at a first cache in response to receiving the first segment from the first CDN;
and
the second segment is stored at a second cache in response to receiving the second segment from the second CDN, and
wherein:
the streaming device is coupled to a connection provided by an Internet service provider (ISP);
and
based on determining that a download speed of the first CDN is less than a download speed of the ISP, the second request is sent to the second CDN.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Spread channel multi-CDN streaming

Life of this patent

Spread channel multi-CDN streaming

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims17