Supporting functions for quality-assured P2P VoD services
AssigneeTelefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (publ)
InventorsAyodele Damola, András Császár, Ákos Kiss, Attila Körösi, Csaba Lukovszki, Balázs Székely
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to a method for controlling downloading of video segments or segmented video stream to a subscriber client unit, and a subscriber client unit adapted to perform said method. One object of the invention is to guarantee seamless playback and the optimal server load. Said object is by a method and a subscriber client unit that is controlled by a segment selector (SSA) and a server bandwidth control (SBC) algorithm.
Claims24
Method performed by a subscriber client unit for controlling a downloading of video segments or a segmented video stream to the subscriber client unit from providers comprising at least one central video server providing video uploading services to a plurality of subscriber clients and at least one subscriber client being a possible and/or accepted uploader client providing video uploading services to other clients in a peer-to-peer manner, the subscriber client unit being capable of executing a Segment Selector Algorithm for selecting from a list of accepted available video providers a suitable provider for a succeeding video segment to be downloaded, and a Server Bandwidth Control (SBC) algorithm, the method comprising:
- calculating a minimal server bandwidth (σmin) according to a prebuffered video segment gain in the subscriber client unit in order to achieve a fault free playback;
- calculating a maximal server bandwidth (σmax) according to a number of available uploader clients' upload bandwidth in order to avoid competition on a subscriber's access link;
- determining an optimal server bandwidth (σopt) according to estimated upload clients' behaviours;
- and
- determining and setting a server speed (σ) based on the minimal server bandwidth (σmin), the maximal server bandwidth (σmax) and the determined optimal max, server bandwidth (σopt).
A subscriber client unit configured to control a downloading of video segments and video streams from video segment providers comprising at least one video server centre providing video uploading services to a plurality of subscriber clients and at least one subscriber client being a possible and/or accepted uploader client providing video uploading services to other clients in a peer-to-peer manner, the subscriber client unit comprising:
- a controlling unit including a processor and configured
- to execute a Segment Selector Algorithm (SSA) for selecting a suitable provider for a succeeding video segment to be downloaded, from a list of accepted available video providers, and
- to execute a Server Bandwidth Control (SBC) Algorithm, the SBC Algorithm comprising
- first calculating unit configurcd to calculatc calculating a minimal server bandwidth (σmin) according to a prebuffered video segment gain in the subscriber client unit in order to achieve a fault free playback,
- estimating a maximal server bandwidth (σmax) according to a number of available uploader clients' upload bandwidth in order to avoid competition on a subscriber's access link,
- determining an optimal server bandwidth (σopt) based on the prebuffered video segment gain and segment upload times, and
- determining and setting a server speed (σ) based on the minimal server bandwidth (σmin), the maximal server bandwidth (σmax) and the determined optimal server bandwidth (σopt).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.