US 2017/0251034 A1Published application

Multicasting adaptive bitrate streams

AssigneeVerizon Patent and Licensing Inc.

InventorsJohannes P. Schmidt, Punitma Malhotra

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Abstract

Content providers, such as television companies, may multicast adaptive bitrate content, using playlist-oriented streaming techniques, to recipient devices (such as set-top boxes (“STBs”)). In a playlist-oriented streaming technique, segment files (e.g., segments of the content) may correspond to predetermined time segments. In order to mitigate lag time, when a channel is selected by a user of an STB, which may ordinarily be caused by the nature of playlist-oriented streaming techniques, an STB may obtain content, associated with the selected channel, via a unicast, non-playlist-oriented technique. Once the next segment file has been received by the STB, the STB may cease obtaining the content by the unicast technique, and may use the segment files received via multicast.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A user device, configured to:

receive a selection of a desired logical channel;
join a multicast group associated with the desired logical channel, to obtain multicasted streaming content that corresponds to the desired logical channel;
output, based on joining the multicast group, a request for unicast content that corresponds to the desired logical channel;
receive, based on the request and via a unicast technique, streaming content that:
corresponds to the desired logical channel, and
is streamed using a non-playlist-oriented streaming technique;
receive multicasted streaming content, corresponding to the desired logical channel, via a multicast technique and based on joining the multicast group, the multicasted streaming content including one or more segment files associated with a playlist-oriented streaming technique;
determine that a particular segment file, of the one or more received segment files, has a start time that corresponds to a future time segment that starts after joining the multicast group;
and
cease, at a time that corresponds to the start time of the particular segment file, reception of the streaming content via the unicast technique.

7 more elements

A method, comprising:

receiving, by a user device, a selection of a desired logical channel, the desired logical channel being associated with streaming content that is provided, via a multicast technique, by a content provider,
the streaming content further being streamed using a playlist-oriented streaming technique, in which the content provider outputs segment files that each correspond to a predetermined time segment;
joining, by the user device, a multicast group associated with the desired logical channel;
outputting, by the user device and based on joining the multicast group, a request for content that corresponds to the desired logical channel;
receiving, by the user device and based on the request and via a unicast technique, streaming content that:
corresponds to the desired logical channel, and
is streamed using a non-playlist-oriented streaming technique;
determining, by the user device, that a particular segment file has been received via the multicast technique, the particular segment file having a start time that corresponds to a future time segment that starts after joining the multicast group;
and
ceasing, by the user device and at a time that corresponds to the start time of the particular segment file, reception of the streaming content via the unicast technique.

7 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable medium, storing processor-executable instructions, which, when executed by one or more processors of a user device, cause the one or more processors to:

receive a selection of a desired logical channel that is associated with streaming content that is streamed, via a multicast technique, using a playlist-oriented streaming technique, in which the streaming content includes segment files that each correspond to a predetermined time segment;
join a multicast group associated with the desired logical channel;
output, based on joining the multicast group, a request for content that corresponds to the desired logical channel;
receive, based on the request and via a unicast technique, streaming content that:
corresponds to the desired logical channel, and
is streamed using a non-playlist-oriented streaming technique;
determine that a particular segment file has been received via the multicast technique, the particular segment file having a start time that corresponds to a future time segment that starts after joining the multicast group;
and
cease, at a time that corresponds to the start time of the particular segment file, reception of the streaming content via the unicast technique.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/055,078Filed 26 Feb 2016
Published: 31 Aug 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

H04L 65/611
For supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio: for multicast or broadcast
H04L 12/1886
For broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast: with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
H04L 65/65
Network streaming of media packets: network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
H04L 65/80
Network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communication: responding to QoS

Family

US 10,015,219 B2Related patent
US 2017/0251034 A1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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