US 12,563,251 B2 · Content delivery

Abstract

A method of managing content delivery to a client device via a proxy is described. The proxy starts off by receiving content requests from the client device over unicast, and fulfils those requests by forwarding them to a content server, and receiving that content before forwarding onto the client device. The proxy then determines that it may be possible to join a multicast channel to more efficiently receive the required content. However, before joining the multicast channel, the proxy determines whether joining the multicast channel might result in the client device receiving content in a manner that would cause the client device to change the quality level of the content segments being requested. The proxy can do this by first obtaining segment requested by the client device from the unicast server over unicast. The proxy also requests timing information from the multicast server to determine a time at which the same segment will complete delivery over multicast. The proxy then delivers the segment received from the unicast server by the determined multicast delivery time.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A method of managing content delivery to a client device by a network element, said content comprising a sequence of segments, and wherein each segment is encoded at a plurality of quality levels, said method comprising:

i) receiving a request for a first segment from a client device, wherein the first segment is encoded at a first quality level;
ii) requesting the first segment from a unicast content source, and in response receiving the first segment by unicast from the unicast source;
iii) determining a delivery time that the first segment will be delivered over a multicast channel;
iv) delivering the received first segment to the client device over unicast at the determined delivery time;
v) receiving a request for a second segment from the client device, wherein the second segment is encoded at a second quality level;
and
vi) deciding to join the multicast channel in dependence on whether the first and second quality levels are equal.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Content delivery

Life of this patent

Content delivery

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims16